ARTICLE - HAITI STANDOFF STYMIES RECOVERY

HAITI STANDOFF STYMIES POST-QUAKE RECOVERY
(Jamaica Observer) - By Erica Virtue

Days shy of a year since the earthquake which left a trail of death and destruction in Haiti, a stand off between aid agencies and the Haitian government over the immediate needs of the country, has stymied post-eartquake recovery.

Haitian president Rene Preval and the country’s Prime Minister, Jean Max Bellerive, have expressed disappointment with some agencies claiming the objectives of many donor agencies and their foreign governments are clashing with the immediate needs of Haiti.

That view is also supported by former Jamaican Prime Minister P J Patterson, named special envoy by Prime Minister Bruce Golding to liaise between the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Haiti.

“Donors are looking for, and prefer projects that have long-term potential, but our immediate needs are others. Therefore, we need to look at creative ways that will encourage donors to quickly fund and implement these projects,” Bellerive told delegates and representatives attending the justconcluded three-day conference on Haiti held in Jamaica.

Bellerive's position follows an urgent appeal for the closing of the gap between current funding from international donor agencies aimed at supporting long-term projects, and the Haitian government’s need for the funding of short-term relief projects.

Haiti also wants urgent strengthening of the country's institutional capacity, which will allow Haitian natives to carry out much of the recovery and reconstruction work themselves.

Shortly after Patterson wrapped up the three-day review meeting in Jamaica on Friday, which was attended by Bellerive, he told the Sunday Observer that the conditions in which displaced citizens exist remain troubling.

Much of the country's capital remains blanketed by tons of debris from last January's quake, which killed an estimated 300,000 persons and left another 1.5 million homeless.

Among the urgent needs of Haiti, according to Bellerive, is finding suitable accommodation for the removal/relocation of a significant percentage of those homeless citizens who remain on the streets of the capital.

The prime minister said, “Almost one third of those displaced are now out of the tent cities, and the one million who wait, will go home to sturdier, safer buildings than before,” but that location is yet to be identified. They exist in unacceptable sanitary conditions, and are further affected by post-quake cholera which has killed an estimated 3,000 persons.

Patterson says he is in sync with Bellerive in his declaration that this situation is untenable.

“He says there needs to be further discussion between the NGO community and Haiti, how that can be rectified so that one knows what activities are being undertaken by the NGO's, and that they can be coordinated, synchronised, and are not in conflict with each other, and you don't end up in a situation where you have an undue replication of facilities and services in one area to the detriment of other sectors and other areas,” Patterson said.

A major cause of the current tug of war, according to sources close to the Haitian government, is the demand by donor governments that the Haitian government be held accountable for cash it is given, even though the government has no control over projects, expenditure or planning. In other instances, donor governments want their nationals to do the actual work on assistance projects, while the Haitian government is expected to provide housing, food and security for them.

The Haitian government has refused to bow to this, and as a result, much of the needed assistance to clear the rubble of the capital and conduct post-recovery work has not been forthcoming.

Alice Blanchet, special advisor to Prime Minister Bellerive, praised aid agencies for their assistance prior, and post earthquake. In an interview with the Sunday Observer, she said there is an urgent need for public and private sector assistance and the need to align the efforts of several sectors.

“While we appreciate the huge humanitarian assistance that we have received, it is also a problem in aligning, going forward, with the priorities of the government, and to have them (aid agencies) conform with government policies. This is what is needed at this point,” she stated.

“This is what we encourage and have been consistently asking them to come into the fold and align with government policy... The face of the disaster has not produced the results that we expected and I believe that the aid community cannot continue to do what has not worked in a sustainable way for Haiti,” Blanchet added.

Kingston's meeting, said the government of Haiti and representatives of CARICOM, agreed on several key project proposals designed to strengthen Haiti's institutional and technical capacity in three priority areas. These include housing and settlement development; physical and environmental planning and infrastructural development and co-ordination.

Kingston's meeting brought together a high-level team including representatives from the Haitian government, led by Bellerive, CARICOM, the office of the special representative of CARICOM for Haiti; the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); the Organisation of American States (OAS); the Caribbean private sector led by the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) and the Haitian Diaspora Federation. The consultations included technical, political and communication specialists covering a range of areas including health, housing, management, construction, public administration and the media.

The working teams successfully identified, and arrived at a consensus on the priority areas for CARICOM's project planning support for Haiti. These include housing and shelter, debris removal, health and sanitation, education and agriculture.

The consultations arose out of growing concerns within Haiti and CARICOM about the slow pace of the recovery programme.

“Both Haiti and CARICOM have been very concerned at the slow pace of the recovery process, and particularly, that the targets which had been set for completing the initial phases of the recovery have not been yet been met, and are insufficient to satisfy the response to an emergency of the greatest magnitude…,” Patterson remarked.

Bellerive estimates that only three per cent of the funding approved by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) for projects has been allocated to the Haitian Government.

It is also estimated that US$31 million is needed to ensure that the gap in technical expertise is closed, which Bellerive added, “is a small amount in the scheme of things.”

Despite the current stand off, Bellerive said significant progress has been achieved in the reconstruction efforts. He cited the re-opening of 50 schools in the earthquake affected areas for the 2010 school year.

CARICOM's post quake response was co-ordinated out of Jamaica with the Jamaica Defence Force and Ministry of Health heading health and security efforts. More than 6,000 regional military, medical and other skilled personnel under the command of Major Jaime O'Gilvie and Lt Colonel Desmond Edwards were dispatched to the country between January and March.