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<DIV>Donor governments and international institutions pledged generously at a
Wednesday conference in New York to support the reconstruction and development
of Haiti. Here are reports from both the Washington Post and the New York Times
about the pledges which exceeded targets, but also expressing concerns about
whether the pledged amounts will actually be paid, and productively used.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV align=center><STRONG><FONT size=3>$5.3 billion pledged over 2 years at U.N.
conference for Haiti reconstruction</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>By Mary Beth Sheridan and Colum Lynch, Washington Post Staff Writers,
Thursday, April 1, 2010; A09 </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>UNITED NATIONS -- The international community pledged $5.3 billion
Wednesday for earthquake-shattered Haiti over the next two years, launching an
ambitious effort not just to rebuild the hemisphere's poorest nation but also to
transform it into a modern state. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The amount exceeded by more than $1 billion the goal set ahead of a
conference co-sponsored by the United Nations and the U.S. government. In all,
countries, development banks and nongovernmental groups pledged nearly $10
billion for Haiti in years to come. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"This is the down payment Haiti needs for wholesale national renewal," said
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. He emphasized, however, that donors must
deliver on the promises of cash, something they have sometimes been slow to do.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted that nearly 50 countries
made pledges, twice as many as contributed to rebuilding the area hit by the
2004 tsunami in South Asia. She announced $1.15 billion in U.S. funds for the
nation-building effort in Haiti. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The reconstruction plan calls for building ports and hundreds of miles of
new roads, resurrecting Haiti's withered agricultural sector, relocating people
from the crowded capital and establishing an efficient bureaucracy in a country
that never had one. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Clinton warned that if the aid effort proves slow or uncoordinated, "the
challenges that have plagued Haiti for years could erupt, with regional and
global consequences." She evoked the possibilities of a stream of boat people,
increased drug trafficking and the spread of drug-resistant diseases. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>In the past two decades, billions of dollars in foreign aid have been sent
to Haiti, with limited results. Money was stolen by corrupt Haitian bureaucrats
or wasted on uncoordinated projects by development organizations. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The architects of the new Haitian nation-building effort -- including the
U.S. government and international development institutions -- say they will try
to do things differently. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The plan calls for an Interim Haiti Recovery Commission -- co-chaired by
Haiti's prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, and former president Bill Clinton --
to oversee the reconstruction with the assistance of scores of foreign
technocrats, including officials seconded by the U.S. government. It will also
have a watchdog office to discourage corruption. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The commission, which is to be in place for 18 months, will provide a sort
of scaffolding for the creation of a senior Haitian bureaucracy, officials said.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Haiti's already-weak government was devastated by the Jan. 12 earthquake,
which killed an estimated 17 percent of the country's civil servants and leveled
all but one of the ministry buildings. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The donor conference, held in a wood-paneled hall at the United Nations,
thrust the Clintons into perhaps their most prominent international role since
Bill Clinton's presidency. They both sat on the dais, flanking Ban and Haitian
President René Préval. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The Clintons have taken a deep interest in Haiti since a post-wedding trip
there in 1975. Haiti was high on Bill Clinton's foreign policy agenda when he
was president, with U.S. troops restoring Jean-Bertrand Aristide to the
presidency after a coup. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"My job in the next 18 months is going to be to try to connect the inside
and outside forces in a way that maximizes the input and the impact of all the
players, [and] minimizes the frictions and transaction costs," Bill Clinton told
the U.N. gathering. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The commission will work with a multi-donor trust fund administered by the
World Bank that will raise and track funds for Haiti. The U.S. contribution,
which Congress must approve, is focused on four areas: agriculture; health;
security and governance; and infrastructure, particularly the development of
clean energy sources. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>It is unclear whether Washington will give any money directly to Haiti's
government, whose tax revenue has dried up since the earthquake. Its leaders are
seeking $320 million this year to close a hole in its budget. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the managing director of the International Monetary
Fund, pleaded with countries to provide cash to the Haitian government, warning
that otherwise it would print money to pay its bills. That could send inflation
soaring and "will destroy all the forecasts we made today," Strauss-Kahn said.
</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Congress has been leery about direct payments because of the Haitian
government's history of corruption and dysfunction. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>*******************************************************</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" align=center><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=5><STRONG>Skepticism on Pledges for
Haiti</STRONG></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>March 31, 2010, New York Times, </FONT><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>By NEIL MacFARQUHAR</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>UNITED NATIONS — An international effort to finance the reconstruction of
Haiti attracted billions of dollars in pledges at a conference here on
Wednesday, but the very size of the outpouring raised questions about whether
the commitments would be met and how fast the financial support could help salve
the needs of the Haitian people. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>“Now it comes down to implementation,” said Ban Ki-moon, the United
Nations secretary general. “We must make sure that Haiti gets the money it needs
when it needs it.” </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The pledges, from 59 nations or international organizations, add up to
nearly $5.3 billion over the next two years, and a total of $9.9 billion for
three years or more, Mr. Ban said. It was unclear how much of that constituted
new money and how much had been allocated before, but Haiti itself had sought
initial pledges of $3.9 billion, and Mr. Ban set the target at $11.5 billion
over the next decade. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The United States was among the largest single donors, with Secretary of
State Hillary Rodham Clinton committing to $1.15 billion on top of the more than
$900 million already spent. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>“Aid is important, but aid has never saved a country,” Mrs. Clinton said,
noting that the Haitians would have to do the work with the help of the
international community. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Haitians remain skeptical because millions of dollars were pledged in the
past for hurricane relief, but only a fraction was actually paid. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Donors said the scale of this disaster — a magnitude-7 earthquake that
flattened Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas on Jan. 12 — was different.
</FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>“All those others did not come after an earthquake, an earthquake that
was a shocking and brutal event for the rest of the world,” said Bernard
Kouchner, the French foreign minister, in an interview. Indeed, some of the
smaller pledges came from far-flung countries like Mali, which said it would
give $200,000, and Montenegro, which pledged $10,000. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Yet anger mounts among Haitians who hear about billions in aid while
hundreds of thousands of them still struggle for earthquake relief. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Georges B. Sassine, a Haitian businessman with a delegation presenting
its own reconstruction plan, said that his countrymen were waiting to hear that
things were moving, that “x, y and z are going to start now.” It was a message
echoed by members of the Haitian diaspora, nongovernmental organizations and
others, a cross section of society allowed to address the gathering; even for a
United Nations conference, it was a wide array. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The money is supposed to be funneled into a multinational fund supervised
by the World Bank, and then doled out through projects agreed to by an interim
reconstruction commission consisting of Haitians and the largest donors. Former
President Bill Clinton and the Haitian prime minister, Jean-Max Bellerive, are
to lead the commission. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Aid experts point to the lack of adequate shelter, a critical issue for
safety and public health, as a sign that the sluggish aid response in some
sectors must speed up, particularly as hurricane season approaches. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>“There is mud and dirt everywhere, and a plastic sheet and a tarp is not
going to do it,” said William G. O’Neill, a Haiti expert at the Social Science
Research Council in New York and a periodic consultant for the United Nations
mission. “That just didn’t sink in for some reason.” Donors should have started
shipping temporary houses months ago, he said. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>The speed at which the world’s attention can shift was underscored at a
news conference by a sudden raft of questions about possible new Security
Council negotiations over Iran sanctions. </FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Despairing the change in focus, Haiti’s president, René Préval, cracked,
“Do I need to develop a nuclear program for Haiti so that we come back to
talking about Haiti?” </FONT></P></DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>