ARTICLE - CARICOM - HAITI ACTION PLAN

CARICOM HEADS STILL SEE NO PROGRESS ON HAITI ACTION PLAN
(Stabroek) -

CARICOM Heads of Government had bemoaned the lack of progress in the implementation of the Haiti Action Plan last July and they are again expressing regret that eight months later nothing has changed while the second hurricane and rainy season since the earthquake catastrophe is upon the people of Haiti.

According to a statement on the “Recovery and Construction of Haiti” coming out of the 22nd Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government last week in Grenada, they had also called on the international donor community to make good on the pledges and promises made to Haiti. “This they saw as critical for the Government of Haiti to begin to provide durable shelter for the internally displaced persons, remove the rubble and replace and augment the institutional capacity of the Government to make good on its responsibilities,” a communique issued through the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen said.

The statement also noted that CARICOM Heads had recognised that while the Haitian Recovery Fund (HRF) managed by the World Bank has no resources, the projects being approved by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), while admittedly important do not reflect the critical, immediate priorities and the implementation arrangements are uncertain.

Moreover, the limited flow of resources pledged to the HRF and the drastic shift to the bilateral approach in the planning of the use of resources did not bode well for addressing the priorities laid out by the Haitian Government in the Haiti Action Plan in the longer term.

Reiterating their concern that present strategies would not lead to significant progress nor improvement in the reconstruction of Haiti and in addressing the plight of the internally displaced by the end of the eighteen month period of the life of the Commission, CARICOM Heads of State and Government called upon the international community to meet their commitments to Haiti in the manner originally planned in order to make their contributions more effective. They also called upon the IHRC to review its working methods in order to ensure that the priorities of the Haitian Government are met with the urgency which their mandate requires during the remainder of the Commission’s life.

Meanwhile, the Heads of Government renewed their call to the international donor community to place substantial funds in the HRF, synchronise their bilateral activities with the priorities of the Government and maintain the integrity of the process, as was agreed at the Donor Conference in the United Nations last March.