Today's announcement that we're waiving all payments from Haiti for the next 5 years while we continue to work to forgive its debt of US $38 million -- less than 4% of the country's external debt -- is only a small sliver of our much larger commitment to Haiti.
Since 2005, we have provided US $363 million in grants that have been used to further the country's reform agenda and improve its overall economic prospects. Additionally, in June of 2009 Haiti received US $1.2 billion in debt relief after reaching the completion point under the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), which allows creditors, including multilateral institutions, to provide debt relief to the world's poorest and most heavily indebted countries.
Haiti was already showing encouraging signs of improvement when the earthquake struck. It had posted three successive years of economic growth since 2004 -- when the economy contracted by 3.5% -- and the government was making headway in improving governance and transparency, especially in the area of public financial management systems. In spite of the global financial crisis and the fall of remittances, Haiti's economy grew more than 2% last year.
The earthquake has put the brakes on all that, but at the Bank we look to redouble our support to Haiti and its people by building back better and putting the reins of development in the hands of the Haitian communities.
A team of World Bank experts is on the ground in Haiti, to assess how our current projects can be best redeployed to support recovery and to prepare for an emergency operation in response to the earthquake. Bank specialists will join a multilateral team -- including staff from the UN, the European Union and the Inter American Development Bank -- that will be working in Haiti for the next few weeks to conduct damage and reconstruction assessments in every major sector, including health, education, water, sanitation, electricity, and roads.
Going forward, we would like to put special emphasis on the capacity generated by community-driven development projects, where people at the local level decide their priorities. We have supported a number of such initiatives going on in Haiti at the moment that have proven to be particularly successful on the basis of community involvement. This will be critical in the reconstruction.
Just to give an example, by May 2009 our community-driven initiative had completed 549 projects, primarily for agricultural support and other infrastructure -- including grain mills, water pumps, and local roads -- as well as income-generating activities. It provided technical support to 4,032 community-based organizations in rural areas, benefiting around 763,000 people in poor rural areas (or 57 percent of the population of the rural communities covered by the program).
We also want to build back better, making housing and infrastructure more resilient to natural hazards, such as earthquakes and hurricanes. We want to work with the Haitian authorities to strengthen code enforcement and the institutions that supervise this, while continue building the government's capacity to ensure that this happens. In a joint effort with the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) we have recently produced a Reconstruction handbook that I'd like to share here with anyone interested.
In sum, we will be focusing on ongoing projects that work quickly, effectively, and with the people.
The recent tragic events in Haiti have proven the resilience and determination of the Haitian people -- who have not given up on their country or their future or even their hope to still find survivors in the wreckage of their battered capital. We want to join their determination to build a better future based on their own priorities and the help of the international community.
World Bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
World Bank waives Haiti debt payments for 5 years
Haitian reconstruction the focus of talks between Ban and UN envoy Bill Clinton
Marshall
If Haiti recovers, it will recover DESPITE the policies of the World Bank - not because of them. I hope your organization's neoliberal designs on the third world are resisted at every turn. Ecologically, economically, and ethically, your institution's policies have been monstrous disasters.
You ought to reflect on how many lives, ecosystems and lifestyles you have helped destroy. God help us all...
Yes, who is going to benefit this time? Bechtel Corp is usually a big winner in these reconstruction projects. Of course Haliburton and the rest of the war profiteers are now players.
With the U.S. military now owning Port-au-Prince I am not sure how this will play out. The only thing I know for sure is that the winners will be the global loan sharks aka the World Band and the IMF. The losers--that would be the people of Haiti.
The funds are usually transferred directly from the lending entities straight into the coffers of first world corporations. The people have nothing to say about it except to be saddled with paying it back.
Forever.
how we will rebuild haiti, plus we will redo their power supply, and all this will
create 10000's of jobs for haitians. the money the world bank loans will be repaid in no time.
dont forget to over exagerate how much income will come in from all this to repay the loans
so fast, superman couldn't do it faster. then of course it will be the big corporations that
come in and do the work, the money will never leave the world bank. then the world bank
will call in the loan, there will be no money to pay the loan.
haiti will then be called 'world bank island'.
panama, equador, saudia arabia and many more countries have these economic hitmen
come in and promise the world, the world is the world bank coming to take what you
have as far as recourses. no oil in haiti so something is amiss here.
http://www.margueritelaurent.com/pressclips/oil_sites.html#5_oil_sites_in_Haiti