22701: (Hermantin) Miami-Herald-Report: $1.3 billion needed to completely rebuild Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Wed, Jul. 14, 2004


Report: $1.3 billion needed to completely rebuild Haiti

BY MICHAEL A.W. OTTEY

Miami Herald


Haiti needs more than $1.3 billion over the next two years to revive its
economy, jump-start basic services, strengthen democracy and improve its
government, according to a World Bank report released Tuesday.

The report by more than 200 Haitian and international experts after a
months-long assessment came as Haiti continued to grapple with extreme
poverty, lack of services, health and security issues.

Haiti's interim government has said that it has $440 million. A donors
conference Monday and Tuesday at World Bank headquarters in Washington will
seek pledges for the lacking $924 million.

Among the agencies that will participate are the European Commission,
Inter-American Development Bank, United Nations and World Bank. Secretary of
State Colin Powell, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Haitian Prime
Minister Gerard Latortue are scheduled to attend.

Last month, Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Fla., submitted a bill that would nearly
double the $54 million pledged by the Bush administration for food, clean
water, housing and job-creation. A House vote on the bill is expected
Thursday.

''The Bush administration is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to
install a new democracy halfway around the world in Iraq and to rebuild that
country, while at the same time neglecting a struggling democracy only 700
miles off our shores,'' Meek said last month.

``This bill represents a step in the right direction, but clearly more help
is needed, and we have to keep pressing them to provide it.''

Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere -- in 2003 it had an
estimated per capita income of $361 -- and an armed rebellion that led to
the ouster of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide further eroded the
economy and government services.

The report Tuesday said the $1.3 billion should be focused on four areas:
strengthening of political governance and promoting national dialogue;
strengthening economic governance and institutional development; promoting
economic recovery; and improving access to basic services.

The report recommended spending more than $172 million to improve security
and the justice system, and to facilitate new elections.

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