Six months after a deadly earthquake devastated communities along Haiti’s southern peninsula and created new challenges in an already troubled country, the government will lead an international donors’ conference Wednesday in hopes of raising billions of dollars toward recovery and reconstruction.
Haiti has estimated that the cost of rebuilding the southern areas Nippes and Grand’Anse, where entire towns were destroyed, will be around $2 billion. Around $1 billion of that would go to housing and another $400 million for education. Another 10% of the recovery dollars would go to the areas of agriculture, trade and tourism, and 9% would go to repair infrastructure.
A detailed four-year reconstruction and recovery plan will be presented by the government during the conference, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Ariel Henry and broadcast live on UN TV from Port-au-Prince. Haitian authorities produced their comprehensive Post Disaster Needs Assessment in just over six weeks with support from the United Nations, the European Union, the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
At least 30 people representing member states, regional organizations, multilateral organizations and development banks have signed up to speak, and U.N. Secretary General Amina Mohamed, who toured the country immediately after the Aug. 14 earthquake, will attend in person.
How donors respond Wednesday will give an indication of their willingness to assist Haiti as the politically unstable country finds itself without an elected government or president, an unsolved presidential assassination and a multitude of crises from gang violence and kidnappings to lack of food.
“The resilient recovery and reconstruction of the southern peninsula is critical and must be supported,” said Bruno Lemarquis, the U.N.’s humanitarian coordinator in Port-au-Prince.
Lemarquis said the government and the U.N., which is assisting with the conference, know that the price tag is ambitious, especially given the challenges both have faced over the years trying to raise development dollars for the country. Still, he believes it’s achievable.
Already, Haiti has received 16% of the funds in existing resources and they hope to reach 25% at the end of the conference.
The intention, Lemarquis said, is “to kick start the reconstruction process with international support.”
The earthquake killed more than 2,200 people and affected 800,000 others after 137,000 homes, 1,250 schools and 95 hospitals and health centers were damaged or destroyed.
Around 11% of the country’s gross domestic product was gone in just a few seconds, said Lemarquis, who noted that the natural disaster also delayed the re-start of school for about 300,000 students.
“It was really a devastating earthquake,” he said.
UNICEF noted that over 1,000 schools in the most affected regions are yet to be rebuilt, leaving an estimated 320,000 children to study in environments that are not conducive to learning.
“Hundreds of schools are still in ruins. Without schools, many children may abandon their studies,” said Bruno Maes, UNICEF Representative in Haiti. “Rebuilding educational infrastructure and providing students and teachers with learning materials is urgent and fundamental if we want children to recover a sense of normalcy in their lives.”
Recovery efforts have been hampered by ongoing gang violence at the southern entrance of Port-au-Prince.
Lemarquis noted that it is now estimated that across the country, 4.9 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. Opposition and civil society leaders are pushing to remove Henry’s interim government and replace it with a two-year transitional government led by a five-member presidential college and a prime minister whom they have already designated.
Wednesday’s conference, Lemarquis said, is not about the ongoing political crisis but about the people who have been affected by the disaster.
Since the earthquake, Haiti has experienced more than a thousand aftershocks. A moderate quake last month killed at least two people and injured 50 others; 591 homes also were damaged and 191 were destroyed, according to the Office of Civil Protection.
“This situation is therefore once again a wake-up call, and an opportunity for Haiti and its development partners to elevate risk reduction issues as a national priority,” Lemarquis said.
Unlike 12 years ago, when the international community gathered after the 2010 earthquake to pledge assistance to Haiti — money that many donors failed to make good on — Lemarquis said Wednesday’s international donor conference is being led by Haiti with an assist from the U.N.
Haitian authorities, he said, have asked the UN. for support in setting up a U.N. Multi-Partner Trust-Fund, as an option for development partners. Such a fund would facilitate alignment with national priorities and greater coordination of efforts.
“It’s important to recognize the strong national leadership during the emergency and humanitarian assistance phase. Many lives were saved due to the fast and resolute action taken by national and local authorities, in particular the Haitian Civil Protection,” he said.
This time, the focus is on putting Haiti’s leaders at the center and respecting national leadership and coordination arrangements, Lemarquis said.
“It will be the conference of the government of Haiti supported by the U.N. national leadership,” he added. “ As we say in Creole, le Ayiti vle, Ayiti kapab, When Haiti wants, Haiti can.”
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