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UN hosts conference for Haiti quake aid donors

01 April 2010 01:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. High-level representatives from more than 130 members of the United Nations and its agencies and programs are meeting at the UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday for a conference to aid Haiti in recovering and rebuilding after January’s devastating earthquake, APA reports quoting News.xinhuanet.com web-page.
About 11.5 billion U.S. dollars worth of aid is being sought.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared the opening of the international gathering. With the them of "Towards a New Future in Haiti", the high-level session is being hosted by the United Nations and United States, in cooperation with the Haitian government. Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, and Spain - - as leading donors to Haiti -- are co-chairing.
Ban, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Haitian President Rene Preval and the UN special envoy for Haiti, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, are attending the conference.
"Our goal is not to rebuild," Ban told the opening of the conference. "It is to ’build back better’."
"What we envision, today, is wholesale national renewal, a sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations," Ban said. "Over the next 10 years, Haiti’s reconstruction needs will total an estimated 11.5 billion U.S. dollars."
The international gathering was brought into limelight several days before its convocation with warming-up speeches from Ban and Hillary.
"The world’s leaders will rise to stand by Haiti in solidarity - - a solidarity to be measured in years, long after the initial shock of disaster has passed. I am confident that, together, we can set Haiti on the road to a new and very different future," said the secretary-general.
Secretary Clinton told the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee last week the State Department had budgeted more than 1 billion U.S. dollars in "strategic investments coordinated with our international partners" for Haiti.
"We are committed to Haiti for the long term. We are working with our international partners to meet urgent needs as the rainy season approaches. And we are working with the Haitian Government for Haiti’s long-term reconstruction and renewal," she told an " Appreciation Event" at the State Department March 15 for those aiding Haiti.
"This is the opportunity for us to tell the entire world that the reconstruction of our country must be above all a national effort, an appropriate reflection of the solidarity shown right after the earthquake by all the Haitian people," said Preval.
"It’s also the opportunity for the government to express on behalf of the nation, in a strong and united voice, its gratitude to the international community for its assistance in support of Haiti’s strategic vision and choices for the reconstruction of our country," he said.
Former U.S. President Clinton, the UN special envoy to Haiti, is expected to co-chair a panel of donors and Haitian officials to keep an eye on aid spending.
More than 220,000 people were killed in the Jan. 12 earthquake that leveled much of the capital city of Port-au-Prince and vicinity, directly affecting 1.5 million people, 1.3 million of whom are living in temporary shelters. More than 500,000 people fled the capital for shelter elsewhere in the island nation.
Damage and loss is estimated at about 7 billion U.S. dollars or more than 120 percent of Haiti’s 2009 gross domestic product (GDP).
Haiti -- the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere before the earthquake struck -- has put an 11.5 billion U.S. dollar price tag on recovery, reconstruction and development.
That would cover social needs, such as water and sanitation, health, education, and food security; infrastructure, which would include housing, transport, telecommunications, energy, urban and administrative infrastructure; production sectors, including agriculture, industry, trade, finance and banking and tourism; and environment and disaster risk management.
"This conference is about securing resources for Haiti’s long- term reconstruction," said UN Development Program Administrator and Chair of the UN Development Group Helen Clark. "These resources could form the lifeblood of Haiti’s recovery from this devastating earthquake and create the foundation for the long term recovery and development Haitians deserve."
But Haiti is not seeking it all at once. From this session it hopes to raise 3.9 billion U.S. dollars for the initial 18-month period of the country’s recovery and reconstruction, with priorities for assistance set by the government.
In the Haitian government’s own sleek 53 page "Action Plan for Recovery and Development," President Preval laid out his long-term vision.
"We will rebuild Haiti by turning the disaster ... into an opportunity to make it an emerging country by 2030," he said.
The restructuring would result in "a fair, just, united and friendly society living in harmony with its environment and culture; a modern society characterized by the rule of law, freedom of association and expression and land management."
Preval saw a modern society with "an inclusive economy based on the land; a society in which people’s basic needs are met quantitatively and qualitatively;" a knowledge-based society with universal access to basic education; with a relevant professional training system, and the capacity for scientific and technical innovation fed by a modern and efficient university system, in order to create a "new type of citizen the country needs for reconstruction."
The president also sought a "unitary state guaranteeing the implementation of laws and the interests of the people with a strong commitment to de-concentration and decentralization."
This would all be done in two stages, he said, 10 years of reconstruction and recovery for Haiti to be put on the road to development followed by 10 years to make it a reality.