Haiti seeking 11.5 billion dollars over 10 years (News Feature)

By JT Nguyen Mar 31, 2010, 0:11 GMT

New York - The aim of Wednesday's international donor conference on Haiti will be to forge a positive path forward in the impoverished Caribbean nation, which was shattered by the January earthquake.

With an emphasis on having the government of President Rene Preval lead Haiti's recovery, a team of foreign and Haitian experts have developed an ambitious 10-year plan as a blueprint for reconstruction.

At the donor conference, the international community will be urged to stand by Haiti in its most dire hours since the 7-magnitude earthquake struck on January 12 at the heart of the capital Port-au- Prince and the towns of Leogane, Jacmel and Petit-Goave.

A post-disaster needs assessments projected that the earthquake and aftershocks inflicted physical damage and other economic losses of 8 billion dollars. Haitian authorities estimate the death toll at 300,000, with a similar number of people injured.

More than 130 government envoys and international organizations including the World Bank are expected for Wednesday's conference at UN headquarters, presided over by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Preval will present the Action Plan for the National Recovery and Development of Haiti.

'The situation that the country is facing is difficult but not desperate,' the plan's introduction states. 'In many ways it is an opportunity to unite Haitians of all classes and origins in a shared project to rebuild the country on new foundations.'

The plan calls for building a new Haiti and not just repairing the capital and towns destroyed by the earthquake.

It attributed the massive physical destruction and high death toll to the 'excessively dense population, a lack of adequate building standards, the disastrous state of the environment, disorganized land use and an unbalanced division of economic activity.'

In sharp contrast, a much stronger, 8.8-magnitude earthquake shook Chile on February 27, killing about 342 people.

Before the earthquake, Port-au-Prince accounted for 65 per cent of economic activity and 85 per cent of Haiti's tax revenue.

Preval was expected to announced a two-phase reconstruction, with an initial 18 months during which 3.9 billion dollars will be sought to launch the reconstruction. A second phase for up to 10 years would be planned to complete the new Haiti.

The whole project would cost 11.5 billion dollars.

'The first (phase) is in the immediate future, covering the end of the emergency period and includes preparation for projects to general genuine renewal,' the plan said.

Preval was to announce the establishment of a Temporary Committee for Rebuilding Haiti, which will eventually become the country's development agency.

While Preval and his government will have a leading role, a public opinion poll conducted in March by Oxfam International in Haiti showed that 26 per cent of 1,700 Haitians interviewed said that jobs topped the list of priorities, followed by schools at 22 per cent and housing at 10 per cent.

The poll said that Haitians have 'little' confidence in Preval's unilateral lead in the reconstruction.

Preval's plan said the earthquake's human impact was 'immense.'

About 1.5 million people, or 15 per cent of the population, were directly affected by the natural disaster. Currently some 1.3 million Haitians are living in temporary shelters in Port-au-Prince, while more than 600,000 others fled the capital.

The earthquake destroyed 105,000 homes and damaged 208,000 more. More than 1,300 schools and 50 hospitals were levelled.