Buried amidst all the coverage about President Obama's decision on offshore oil drilling is an important story about an "internal Obama administration assessment" creating a new plan for Haiti where rebuilding government is key. The Obama administration is developing a new policy for Haiti because the prior policy was a failure: The U.S. government has provided $4 billion in aid since 1990, but this assessment by the Obama administration struggled to find any lasting, positive impact from that aid. This new assessment is focused on saving lives now and in the future, providing a better, sustainable life in the future and eliminating a corrupt government.
This diary is part of our series on Helping Haiti's Earthquake Survivors. It focuses on Obama's plan for Haiti's recovery and reconstruction, while also including news stories from the past few days that illustrate the need or reason for parts of Obama's plan. However, all of the news stories except one were collected before I read Obama's plan, which provided a nice way to connect the news.
Our Daily Kos Series for Helping Haiti's Earthquake Survivors continues with this 97th Diary: While Obama's plan and world leaders discuss reconstruction aid, we should not forget that earthquake-Shattered Haiti Still Needs Emergency Assistance to provide shelter from rains, looming hurricane season.
A list of resources is provided in Avila's diary here (Our resources list is too long to include when I added recent news stories about Haiti.)
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ... says it is important to remember that Haiti is still in an emergency phase and continues to need humanitarian assistance.
...The U.N. appeal for $1.4 billion for humanitarian assistance is only 48 percent covered. She says contributions have stagnated and key sectors such as agriculture, camp management, shelter material, education, and food are not sufficiently funded.
Obama's plan is designed to further one principle that experts stress is key for success: The need to finance development, not dependency: The "world's support for Haiti going forward must look to not just satisfy immediate humanitarian needs but also back a development strategy that pulls the country out of decades of poverty and instability."
The U.S. plan focuses on four areas: "health; agriculture; governance and security; and infrastructure, with a particular emphasis on energy."
Rejuvenating rural farms is crucial to create jobs and feed people.
But apart from a few mangoes, scarcely any of this horticultural largesse makes its way south along Rue nationale #1 to Port-au-Prince – a three-hour journey over a dusty, heavily potholed road whose hazards sometimes reduce speeds to 10 km/h.
After such a trip, most Artibonite produce simply can't compete with crops grown closer to the capital in poorer soil, much less against imported, subsidized food from the United States.
If you're eating rice in Port-au-Prince, chances are it came from the Mississippi Delta. Haiti has been unable to feed itself since the 1970s, and domestic production now accounts for less than half the country's food consumption.
The "most dramatic change" in Obama's plan is an "effort to build up Haiti's fragile government instead of working around it." The goal of the Obama plan is to "develop the framework of a modern state -- spending money to help Haiti create building codes, regulatory systems and anti-corruption standards. U.S. funds would be used to train and pay Haitian officials." To prevent waste, the plan includes funds for an inspector general.
Creating and enforcing building codes are imperative: International engineers inspecting buildings find poor construction caused damage.
International engineers inspecting buildings in the rubble-strewn capital have found that houses and offices in Haiti suffered catastrophic damage mainly because they were poorly constructed -- made with a weak cement and lacking proper steel reinforcements, in a country where the government never enforced building codes.
...In a confidential memo circulated among its employees in Haiti, the United Nations mission recommended that they stay out of concrete structures and offered suggestions on how to politely decline to attend meetings in buildings they deemed dubious.
...Haitian and U.S. engineers inspecting the 225,000 dwellings and 20,000 offices that the Haitian government estimates were damaged or destroyed say that much of the catastrophic damage could have been averted if concrete masonry had been reinforced-- one of the most basic rules of engineering.
The Obama administration wants to "help the Haitian government with its own priorities -- not impose a U.S. vision."
Why not tap some of Haiti's overseas talent?
When the U.N. convenes a group of wealthy countries to declare their financial commitment to rebuild Haiti on Wednesday, Haitian-Americans will be paying careful attention. Their focus will not be simply on how much money the "donor" countries are putting up, but whether there will be a role for the two million Haitians and hyphenated Haitians living in the United States, Canada and Europe.
...It would seem logical for Haiti to tap a deep overseas talent pool that could bring first-world expertise and an intimate knowledge of Haiti's quirks and culture to the rebuilding effort. But none around the table were assured that their voices, their vision or even their skills will be in the reconstruction.
Obama's assessment recognizes that one priority is to address Haiti's "dysfunctional and notoriously corrupt" government by using an international body working with the Haitian government.
Haiti has remained in poverty partly because of a history of brutal rulers, foreign intervention and natural disasters. Equally important, the country's economic and political elite have monopolized the resources of the government.
At the international conference held today, world leaders discussed financing for a sweeping nation-building reconstruction.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the goal was not just to rebuild Haiti but to transform its history of deep poverty and dysfunction.
"What we envision today is a wholesale national renewal, a sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations," he told the conference.
Some of the U.S. funds would be funneled through the proposed Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, which will be comprised of Haitian authorities, donor country representatives, and international institutions. Canada will pay $100M to join Haiti recovery team.
Canada is preparing to pay $100 million to join an exclusive new international club that would guide the rebuilding of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, The Canadian Press has learned.
That’s the price tag for a seat on the proposed Interim Haitian Recovery Commission that is expected to be one of the key announcements to be made this week at the New York international donors’ conference on Haiti.
...Tsikata said that ideally the commission would only be in place for 18 months before it morphs into an independent Haitian government entity. In the meantime, it would allow for a "more co-ordinated, more harmonized," approach to rebuilding Haiti.
Some foreign aid will be distributed by countries working on segments of the total reconstruction project needed for Haiti. For example, Canada and France will work on reconstructing their school system.
Bill Clinton will be busy as Haiti Reconstruction Czar:
Another key is to prevent corporate greed from "Profiting off Haiti's disaster"
The world also needs to watch for corruption by groups raising funds for Haiti: Red Cross under fire! Where’s the money for Haiti?
The American Red Cross has already admitted to financing its own debt with donations given for Haiti relief. According to its official report on the first two months since the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, they collected over $354 million for Haiti but have spent only $106 million. Yet only half of the 1.3 million people made homeless by the quake have even a tarp as the rainy season begins.
Demanding an independent accounting, the Friday Haiti Relief Coalition protested at the American Red Cross headquarters in New York City on March 22. They’ll repeat that demand on Wednesday, March 31, at the United Nations in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street and First Avenue, during the Haiti Donors Conference at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Another key demand is that Haitians must determine for themselves how they want to rebuild their nation.
Private organizations, like the Ashton Kutcher/Demi Moore Foundation, are also working to highlight during the reconstruction process the need to Stop Child Slavery In Haiti.
The DNA Foundation -- a not-for-profit organization initiated in January by Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher -- has announced plans to end child slavery in Haiti by banning a centuries old practice that allows the buying and selling of children for labor purposes.
There are approximately 300,000 "restavec" children in Haiti -- those who are sent from their own family to live with another, often for economic reasons. Too often, these children are sold for money and forced to do housework and sleep on the floor.