Submitted by Bryan Schaaf on Wed, 01/27/2010 - 15:21.
Bloomberg
1/27/2010
By Sandrine Rastello
World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged donors to sustain aid efforts for Haiti to help the country rebuild after the earthquake that devastated its capital city two weeks ago.
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“My major worry is that when the cameras go, the donors go,” Zoellick said in an interview in Freetown, Sierra Leone yesterday. “It’s important for the world to understand that we’re going to have to have parallel humanitarian and reconstruction operations for some considerable time.”
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Donors have given $783 million to Haiti and pledged another $1.13 billion, according to United Nations figures released this week. Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere before the earthquake, which killed more than 150,000 people and destroyed a third of the buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
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The World Bank, which has pledged $100 million in grants to Haiti, has also started work on a fund to gather some of the donations and avoid a duplication of projects. It is working with the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Commission, Zoellick said.
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Countries at a Jan. 25 meeting in Montreal, including Canada, France, Brazil and the U.S., committed to helping Haiti for at least the next 10 years. They also agreed to meet again in March in New York.
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Zoellick praised the Canadian initiative and said more of such meetings will be needed. At the same time, “we still have to keep our eye on the basic humanitarian needs,” he said, because “we’re not yet at the point of stability.”
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the U.S. and other countries are examining how to cut Haiti’s debt burden. The country owes $1.2 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund, about 19 percent of its gross domestic product.
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Debt relief “is not a silver bullet because, if you think about it, they may not be able to pay the debt anyway,” Zoellick said. “You’re going to have to get money there, not just forget other money, and empower the Haitian government to come up with a development plan that will move in parallel with the humanitarian assistance.”
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Haiti will ask for $3 billion for reconstruction, the New York Times reported this week, citing Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour. President Rene Preval has put Delatour in charge of assessing damage from the quake, the report said.
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Once basic food supplies are flowing, donors may “start to transition to food-for-work programs, cash-for-work programs,” Zoellick said.
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To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Sandrine Rastello in Freetown at srastello@bloomberg.net
Zoellick Urges Donors to Keep Focus on Haiti ‘After Cameras Go’
Bloomberg
1/27/2010
By Sandrine Rastello
World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged donors to sustain aid efforts for Haiti to help the country rebuild after the earthquake that devastated its capital city two weeks ago.
.
“My major worry is that when the cameras go, the donors go,” Zoellick said in an interview in Freetown, Sierra Leone yesterday. “It’s important for the world to understand that we’re going to have to have parallel humanitarian and reconstruction operations for some considerable time.”
.
Donors have given $783 million to Haiti and pledged another $1.13 billion, according to United Nations figures released this week. Haiti was already the poorest country in the western hemisphere before the earthquake, which killed more than 150,000 people and destroyed a third of the buildings in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
.
The World Bank, which has pledged $100 million in grants to Haiti, has also started work on a fund to gather some of the donations and avoid a duplication of projects. It is working with the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank and the European Commission, Zoellick said.
.
Countries at a Jan. 25 meeting in Montreal, including Canada, France, Brazil and the U.S., committed to helping Haiti for at least the next 10 years. They also agreed to meet again in March in New York.
.
Zoellick praised the Canadian initiative and said more of such meetings will be needed. At the same time, “we still have to keep our eye on the basic humanitarian needs,” he said, because “we’re not yet at the point of stability.”
.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the U.S. and other countries are examining how to cut Haiti’s debt burden. The country owes $1.2 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund, about 19 percent of its gross domestic product.
.
Debt relief “is not a silver bullet because, if you think about it, they may not be able to pay the debt anyway,” Zoellick said. “You’re going to have to get money there, not just forget other money, and empower the Haitian government to come up with a development plan that will move in parallel with the humanitarian assistance.”
.
Haiti will ask for $3 billion for reconstruction, the New York Times reported this week, citing Tourism Minister Patrick Delatour. President Rene Preval has put Delatour in charge of assessing damage from the quake, the report said.
.
Once basic food supplies are flowing, donors may “start to transition to food-for-work programs, cash-for-work programs,” Zoellick said.
.
To contact the reporters responsible for this story: Sandrine Rastello in Freetown at srastello@bloomberg.net