Haiti Innovation BLOG

Haiti Innovation helps those who help Haiti. We are available to provide guidance and technical assistance so that you can make a difference in Haiti - whether it be through fund-raising, volunteering, partnership building, or implementing projects. If you are in the Washington, DC area, we are available to meet you in person. For futher information, please email Bryan bryan @haitiinnovation.org with a cc: to Samira at samiralr @yahoo.com

==================

October 7, 2010
Refugees International: Haiti Still Trapped in an Emergency

http://www.haitiinnovation.org/en/2010/10/08/refugees-international-haiti-still-trapped-emergency

==================

(3/8/2010)

The United Nations has called this the most challenging disaster response in its history. More challenges lie ahead, one of which is the upcoming rainy season. While it will not begin for several weeks, heavy rains are already occurring sporadically. Recently, eight people were killed in flooding around Les Cayes. The rains also caused a landslide that destroyed a school in Cap Haitian two weeks ago. Those who have been displaced in Port au Prince require solutions, whether that be temporary shelter or staying with a host family. Their protection, health, and well being depends upon finding shelter before the rains become a daily event.

The government is still trying to re-establish itself. Some estimate that 40% of the Haitian civil service died in the earthquake. While all Ministers survived, most government buildings were destroyed. The revenues of the Haitian government, low to begin with, took a hit. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Haiti’s economy will shrink by at least 10% this year. Remittances, which represent 20% of GDP, have cushioned the economic contraction to a certain extent. Almost 70 percent of the country's revenue came from 500 companies. Of those, four telecom companies accounted for 25 percent and banks constituted roughly 20 percent. As of February 24, USAID-funded cash-for-work programs employed nearly 12,499 persons at 259 sites sites in Port-au-Prince, Petit Goâve, Les Cayes, Cap-Haïtien, Gonaïves, and St. Marc. These jobs are only temporary, rotational work opportunties but they provide much needed income to disaster-affected families.

Acting U.N. mission chief for Haiti Edmond Mulet said that legislative elections must be rescheduled as soon as possible. Until then, it is the responsibility of the Preval Administration to coordinate and to lead this response with the support of the international community. This includes being able to answer the hard questions – How to reconstruct Port au Prince? How will a building code be enforced? What if people can’t afford to build homes to code? How to reverse environmental degradation throughout the country? How to attract investment outside of Port au Prince given a lack of infrastructure? What schools and health care facilities should be rehabilitated and/or rebuilt first? What is the future of agriculture? How best to engage the Diaspora in the reconstruction effort?

The answers to some of these questions will become available by the end of the month. Government planners and international experts are in the process of completing a blueprint to reconstruct Haiti. A team of 150 Haitian government officials and 90 international experts will submit the plan to the government on Friday. It will then be revised and presented at the March 31 Haiti Donors Conference in New York City. One aspect of the plan is to decongest the camps as much as possible ahead of the rapidly approaching rainy season. Another aspect involves decentralizing as much as possible by making Port au Prince smaller and secondary cities bigger. This will be impossible unless opportunities to work and study are not spread out as well. Concerning education, Alex Dupuy, a sociology professor at Wesleyan University, emphasizes that the government should build community colleges, trade schools, and primary schools in the countryside, which will promote development over the long term while creating jobs.

READ FULL REPORT ON WEBSITE