Thursday, June 1, 2017

Introduction to UCG's Haitian Developing Economies Fund I

University Capital Group, LLC., is a Venture Capital Firm launching a developing economies Fund. The Fund is financial fuel used to ignite practical solutions for complex problems. Our fuel also provides assistance to those with the greatest needs.  Our Developing Economies Fund is an ideal vehicle to help ensure the distribution of aid earmarked for people, in need. As a socially responsible company we offer the necessary resources such as financial aid, stable diverse food supply and trained local human capital to power our Fund.  In this package UCG is presenting the “UCG Haitian Developing Economies Fund I”

Insanity “Repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” - Albert Einstein

Haiti has been called the land of NGO’s, with over 10,000 operating within its borders. The distribution of billions upon billions of dollars has not made it into the hands, of the more than 40% of the people who need it most, the destitute, homeless, out of work individuals that are in this position due to devastating natural disasters and lack of any ability to lift themselves out of abject poverty. One of the main problems causing this egregious disparity, is the lack of accountability. UCG feels that most of these NGO’s viewed Haiti as a modern day gold rush and essentially have robbed its citizens, in the guise of humanitarian aid, without any way of tracking how much or where it went.

Aid to Haiti is vital for many purposes including; economic development, disaster relief and providing public goods, such as education and healthcare, where the government has been mostly unable. Since the devastating 2010 earthquake, USAID has dispensed over $3 billion towards humanitarian aid and reconstruction/development efforts. Practically all of the money (99%) was distributed through contracts and grants to bidding American businesses, U.S. development agencies and IO’s. However, aid projects often exclude partnerships with local businesses or staffing local workers (due to a variety of business partnership issues), consequently disqualifying Haitians from the lucrative money pool. That’s $30 million that was actually used for the whole purpose of the aid, out of $30 billion. This is unacceptable to be polite.

This broken model perpetuates itself and prevents aid from reaching those in need and providing the proper resources to their intended use. UCG proposes to provide accountability and direct emergency aid to the people who are actually in need. When disaster strikes, time is of the essence to mobilize. We follow an easy three step process we call AAA:

1. We ANALYZE, the situation.

2. We ASSESS, what is needed with respect to aid and the cost of logistics, delivery and security.

3. We ACT, before any resources are misappropriated or wasted, UCG has assembled a clear plan with realistic time-lines. We do not depend or rely upon the advice of governments other than the country receiving the aid.

Money has been stolen from the people of Haiti while the rest of the world looked on and said nothing. Over $1.1 Billion in foreign aid ended up in the pockets of Haiti’s neighbors and the people in need are still in the exact same situation they have been from the start.

Fact: More than 95% of all NGO aid projects exclude partnerships with local businesses and staffing projects with local workers. They blame this phenomenon on a variety of business partnership issues, which consequently disqualifies the region's population from the lucrative money pool collected on behalf of the country in need. Haiti has fallen victim to this ill-advised and poorly thought out policy. With less than (1%, this is not a typo) of the aid from the 2010 earthquake reaching the people of Haiti, this unconscionable greed must end.

UCG adheres to the premise of using as much local man-power, local knowledge and local resources to enact a successful aid program. We aim to provide long term solutions that fix the problems, not just a temporary band-aid and photo op, to propagate the lie that these humanitarian organizations are anything other than thieves. The people affected by natural disasters have lost friends, family, homes, food supply and their source of income, through gainful employment and are easily prayed upon, due to the fact that they have no voice or position to do anything about it. If you only give a person enough food for a month and then leave on day 31 they are left hungry. The system has failed those who need aid by not addressing the root cause of their problems which is, for most Haitians, unemployment and zero chance of upward mobility.

Currently 40%-50% of able bodied adults remain unemployed as a result of the 2010 earthquake and 2016 hurricane. Additionally, 50%-60% of all citizens do not have access to potable water or sufficient food. By employing and paying locals to help rebuild their communities the situation improves at an exponential rate. A measurement of our success is how much money we are able to inject into local Haitian micro-economies.

Respectfully,
University Capital Group
Managing Partners