HOPE II

Copied below is a strategy paper that Prime Minister Pierre Louis recently released on how the Haitian government intends to meet its short term goals.  I was pleased to see the attention devoted to agriculture, the private sector, and infrastructure development.  Unfortunately, the Haitian government has yet to receive one gourde from the Haiti Donors' Conference.  Hopefully, Special Envoy Clinton has not lost his touch and will be able to encourage Friends of Haiti to honor their pledges.  The paper is brief but balanced and well thought out.  Please feel free to post your thoughts about it in the comments section. 

Most would agree increasing trade is important for Haiti's long term development.  Where people disagree concerns what kind, how much, and where.  Haiti has never been an easy place to invest, but it has enormous potential due to its large multinational Diaspora, proximity to the United States, vast labor pool, and now the passage of Hope II.  Given these advantages, is Haiti open for business?  

President Obama is in the United Kingdom this week as part of the  G20 Summit.  As Nicholas Kristof wrote an op-ed, more is at stake than banks.  According to World Bank estimates, the global economic crisis will cause an additional 22 children to die per hour, throughout all of 2009.  Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank, stated, “In London, Washington and Paris, people talk of bonuses or no bonuses...In parts of Africa, South Asia and Latin America, the struggle is for food or no food.”