Haiti - earthquake

Reconstruction may take a decade, say leaders

Article published on the 2010-01-26 Latest update 2010-01-26 13:24 TU

A man rests after looking for useful materials among the rubble in Port-au-Prince
(Photo: Reuters)

World leaders meeting in Montreal promised to pour energy and resources into the reconstruction of Haiti, but stressed that relief operations remained the top priority.

Donor countries agreed to hold a full conference on aid to Haiti at the UN headquarters in New York in March.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper said, "It is not an exaggeration to say that 10 years of hard work awaits the world in Haiti,"  This timeframe was echoed by a number of officials and experts.

"We must work to ensure that every resource committed, every relief worker, every vehicle, every dollar is used as effectively as possible," Harper said.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to concerns over the US role in supervising relief efforts, saying "The international community must ensure we are working in sync."

"We must find better mechanisms for coordination, oversight, and accountability to ensure that aid and investments are used effectively," she added.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, founder of the international charity Doctors Without Borders, also participated in the conference.

Japan said it would pledge 70 million dollars in aid to Haiti and deploy up to 300 peacekeepers to the UN mission there.

Foreign ministers and other officials from Brazil, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Japan and Spain also attended the Montreal talks.

Officials from the European Union, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund also participated.

Some diplomats evoked the possibility of setting up an initiative similar to the Marshall Plan which rebuilt Europe after World War II.

The United Nations, which is coordinating aid for Haiti, estimated it needed to assist three million people "badly affected and literally reeling" from the earthquake.

Sir John Holmes, the UN's Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, also stressed the need for Haiti to take the lead in moving forward with reconstruction and redevelopment.

"We need to involve the Haitians themselves at every possible stage. The government needs to be in the lead, and the people of Haiti need to be consulted."

Haiti's President René Preval has appealed to governments and aid agencies across the world to provide tents urgently for hundreds of thousands of quake victims who are without shelter.

Preval also urged world governments to provide food assistance to feed 1.5 million people for the next two weeks. Haiti's Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said he would map out a long-term strategy for his country, the poorest in the Americas.  

"In 30 seconds, we lost nearly 60 percent of our gross domestic product, because all of Haiti's resources were concentrated in a small area around our seat of government," he said.

"We have to decentralise. It's the only way to be efficient. It's also the only way to avoid the same problems happening in Haiti again."

Nearly two weeks after the 7.0 magnitude quake that killed around 150,000 and left a million homeless, security is a growing problem with incidents of looting widespread. 

The UN said more than 235,000 Haitians have used free buses to leave the capital Port-au-Prince for cleaner camps outside the capital.