We are five years out from an earthquake of unspeakable horror in Haiti; at least 200,000 died. The anniversary brings Haiti’s misery again into focus: the highest infant-mortality and unemployment in the Western Hemisphere, with the lowest life expectancy and income. A “brain drain” and political stalemate cloud the future. Disease and hunger are rampant, exacerbating poverty as much as they are consequent to it.

Recovery tactics must be customized; programs need to defer to local “situational awareness.” A critique of Haiti since 2010 is precisely that foreigners flooded in and imposed their own ideas, ignoring local input. In post-quake Haiti, for two projects, local input has brought remarkable success. One project fortifies Haitian salt with iodine. This provides, in children, development of additional brain function, so upcoming generations are equipped with additional intellectual horsepower.

A locally led marketing team in one city enticed 81 percent of salt purchasers to try the iodized product. This reduces the staggering number of children born with iodine-related cognitive deficits. So kids go to school with from 10 to 15 additional I.Q. points — prepared to do better there, and then in life. When grown, these smarter children can enhance Haiti’s competitiveness in the global market, and better help hold its leaders accountable.