UN prepares for major donor conference for Haiti in March

Tue, 26 Jan 2010

New York - The United Nations is studying the "best mechanism" to fund the reconstruction of Haiti following the destructive earthquake of January 12, UN officials said Tuesday. Technical experts from various international financial institutions and the UN have already begun what is known as the post-disaster needs assessment to work out a list of initial demands for the international donor conference scheduled to take place in New York in late March.

The Haitian government has estimated it will take at least 3 billion dollars over ten years to restore the country to functioning. The president of Haiti's neighbor, the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, has put the costs at 10 billion dollars over the same time period.

At an international conference Monday in Montreal, 20 countries pledged to "stand with Haiti for the long term," saying an initial 10-year commitment was "essential."

At the conference, the Haitian government asked the UN to make a more exactassessment of the costs and time period, said Jordan Ryan, a director of the crisis prevention department and development program at UN headquarters in New York.

The team of technical experts from the World Bank, the American Development Bank, the European Commission and the UN will be on the ground in Haiti on February 9 to begin the post-disaster need assessment, Ryan said.

Those experts will assess the losses and physical damage inflicted on Haiti by the earthquake, which registered at magnitude 7 on the Richter scale. At least 30 per cent of Port-au-Prince was destroyed and more than 150,000 people were killed.

"On funding, it will take enormous resources in addition to what's needed today to help with the reconstruction," Ryan said. "Clearly the international financial institutions that were present (in the conference) will play a major role in that."

"There are discussions right now on the best mechanism, whether it will be a multi-donor trust fund, or how to do bring in the best of the international financial institutions" into the reconstruction efforts, he said.

Ryan said in a news conference, accompanied by John Holmes, the top UN humanitarian coordinator, that the Haitian government will play a leading role in the reconstruction efforts. Both Ryan and Holmes said the UN had learned lessons from previous disasters when it was called to provide relief assistance.

"We have an opportunity to be ruthless in term of rooting out duplication by having a much more coordinated effort that ensure that the benefit from the assistance will be the Haitian people," Ryan said.

Holmes said the UN had appealed for 575 million dollars for emergency relief for Haitians after the giant earthquake hit and 48 per cent of that amount has been met. Holmes did not rule out the possibility that a fresh appeal when the UN revises the humanitarian needs in Haiti.

Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/305966,un-prepares-for-major-donor-conference-for-haiti-in-march.html.