Perspective of localization of aid during COVID-19: Reflecting on the tensions between the top-down and bottom-up responses to the health emergency in Haiti

Since the outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the COVID-19 has been sweeping across the world causing millions of infections and thousands of deaths (WHO, 2020). It has created a world health emergency. Given the travel and mobility restrictions imposed world-wide to curb the spread of the virus, the pandemic offers an opportunity to discuss the humanitarian aid systems, and specifically, the localization of the agenda.
By using the case of Haiti, this research aims to reflect on the emergent tensions between the different responses to the health crisis given by ‘local actors’: the top-down measures implemented by the government and the bottom-up responses from local leaders, communities and organizations. [...]
We conclude that the localization of aid is more necessary than ever, but it needs to be done with a proper problematization of what ‘local actor’ means: it could involve different types of people, leaders, and organizations; and not in all cases the nation-states could be considered the most important one of them.