As donors await changes to Cuba’s legal landscape that could allow them to begin funding work on the island nation, aid is taking shape in other forms: remittances and private donations.
Cubans, who can now receive quadruple the amount of remittances than allowed previously, are using the extra income for basic everyday provisions and to support burgeoning small businesses. The few aid organizations working in Cuba are also seeing expanded resources thanks to newly eased money transfer restrictions. This activity, experts say, is serving to develop the country despite the lack of official development assistance.
The opening of money flows is indeed dramatic. Americans can now remit to family, entrepreneurs and humanitarian groups under a general license without a limit, and to Cuban nationals at $2,000 — up from the previous $500 — per quarter, according to U.S. Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control reforms enacted Jan. 16.
About the author
Claire Luke
Claire is a journalist passionate about all things development, with a particular interest in labor, having worked previously for the Indonesia-based International Labor Organization. She has experience reporting in Cambodia, Nicaragua and Burma, and is happy to be immersed in the action of D.C. Claire is a master's candidate in development economics at the George Washington Elliott School of International Affairs and received her bachelor's degree in political philosophy from the College of the Holy Cross.
