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Haitistoryreconstructionhttp://haiticonference.org/Haiti_Action_Plan_ENG.pdf

Haiti Reconstruction: An Ambitious and Precarious Plato Republic

UNITED NATIONS While scrambling to get a roof over their heads,the people of Haiti are being presented with a medium and long-termreconstruction plan that is intended to radically change the Caribbeannation, beginning with decentralizing power to lessen pressures on theteeming capital of Port-au-Prince.

Key donors and international banking experts meet on Wednesday atthe New York headquarters of the United Nations for a US-UN-ledconference on the future of the country, shattered in a 7.0 magnitudeearthquake on January 12, considered deadliest natural disaster in

modern times. Both Clintons will be on hand, with Secretary of StateHillary Rodham Clinton serving as co-chair with UN Secretary-GeneralBan Ki-moon and the former president, Bill Clinton, as a UN envoy.

The donors are being asked to pledge $3.9 billion for the first 18months of a reconstruction plan that is eventually expected to cost$11.5 billion over the next decade. President Rene Preval is expected,in presenting the action plan, is to explain Haitis financial needs toconstruct homes, schools, government institutions and attempt toresurrect agriculture and create jobs and a justice and social systemthat is responsive to the disposed.

"That is our challenge in New York -- not to rebuild but to 'build back better,' to create anew Haiti," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in an op-ed column in the WashingtonPost on Monday. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802352.html?sub=AR

No program is to be undertaken without the consent and input from the Haitiangovernment, according to Edmond Mulet, the acting chief UN representative in Haiti,who told reporters that for years Mulet: now int community is demanding govaccountable efficient. State institutions weak. Not find excuses to not work with the

government. Always worked around it. Otherwise pk int intervention for the next 200years.

though emergency needs are not yet Large donors meetDecentralization is the mantra when Haitian President Ren Prval will

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unveil a $3.9 billion plan Wednesday to begin radically reshaping hiscountry's post-earthquake economy and infrastructure, according to aHaitian reconstruction action plan.

The draft lays out specifics on what Haitis financial needs will be over the next threeyears to rebuild the homes, schools, roads, government offices and businesses destroyed.But it also lays out a vision for a new Haiti, which includes a stronger sense ofgovernment and justice and a plan to decentralize power and economic opportunity tolessen the pressures on Port-au-Prince

UNITED NATIONS -- Haitian President Ren Prval will unveil a $3.9 billion planWednesday to begin radically reshaping his country's post-earthquake economy and

infrastructure, according to a Haitian reconstruction action plan.

The plan, which Prval will present to donors at a U.N. conference in New York, wouldessentially redirect much of Haiti's economic development outside Port-au-Prince,creating provisional economic hubs to compete with the capital.

"Rebuilding Haiti does not mean returning to the situation that prevailed before theearthquake," according to the 56-page action plan, the first detailed account of how Haitiand its international backers plan to spend their money over the next 18 months. "Itmeans addressing all these areas of vulnerability, so that the vagaries of nature or naturaldisasters never again inflict such suffering or cause so much damage and loss."

Haiti's reconstruction action plan marks the first phase of a highly ambitiousreconstruction effort that could pour more than $11 billion in international aid into Haitiover the next decade. It calls for refurbishing the airport and main port, building a newairport and two new seaports, and laying 600 kilometers of road through the country topromote trade, tourism and access to health-care centers.

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The Haitian proposal is based on the findings of a needs assessment study that wascarried out by Haitian and international reconstruction specialists. It calls for theestablishment a "Multiple-Donor Fiduciary Fund," which would help overseeinternational reconstruction funds.

"The situation that the country is facing is difficult but not desperate," the action planstates. "In many ways it is an opportunity to unite Haitians of all classes and origins in ashared project to rebuild the country on new foundations."

The Jan. 12 earthquake was Haiti's worst natural catastrophe in 200 years; the 7.3-magnitude temblor killed more than 200,000 people, destroyed 105,000 homes, 50hospitals and health centers, 1,300 school and university buildings and wiped out thepresidential palace, parliament and most other government buildings in the capital.

The overall cost of the damage and losses to economic productivity amounted to morethan $8 billion, according to the plan. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced

by the earthquake and are living in hundreds of settlements and makeshift camps.

"That is our challenge in New York -- not to rebuild but to 'build back better,' to create anew Haiti," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wrote Monday in an op-ed in TheWashington Post. "Under the plan, an Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission wouldchannel nearly $4 billion into specific projects and programs during the next 18 months.Over the next 10 years, reconstruction needs will total an estimated $11.5 billion."

At the conference Wednesday, Ban is expected to announce that he will instruct EdmondMulet, who is serving as his temporary envoy in Haiti, to head the U.N. mission and helpsupport the reconstruction effort over the next year. Mulet told reporters in New York on

Monday that Haiti would have to play a central role in leading the relief andreconstruction effort in Haiti.

Mulet acknowledged that the government's capacity to oversee such a massive rebuildingeffort was limited, noting that about a quarter of the country's civil servants were killed inthe earthquake. But he said that if the international community does not focus moreattention on supporting Haiti's capacity to rebuild and govern itself, the United Nationsmay be required to keep peacekeepers in the country "for the next 200 years."

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