The World Bank official said the rest of the donations pledged in March were coming in on a bilateral basis between Haiti and the donor countries.
Some 250,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless when the earth shook on January 12, unleashing a trail of destruction on the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Haitians on Monday marked the first six-months after the disaster with growing impatience at the slow trickle of aid and the crawling pace of reconstruction, with experts predicting it could take 20 years just to clear the rubble from the streets.
According to the United Nations office in Haiti, nearly 4,000 small homes have been built in a project that anticipates building some 10,000 houses.
Cox admitted "the pace of reconstruction has not been as rapid as we would have hoped."...
http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-23958--2-2--.html
Why does this process of providing International Aid have to take so long and why is there loss of progress only to cost more later to restart the effort all over again?
...The United States Congress and many parliaments have made clear that funds given to Haiti should be managed in the most efficient way and to the highest governance standards. Speed is of the essence, but so are controls to ensure that funds are not misspent. That means we need to know who will get the money and how it will be spent. Projects must truly benefit the poor. The record of aid to Haiti over the last 20 years demands nothing less.
Sri Mulyani Indrawati
Managing Director, The World Bank
Washington, July 15, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/opinion/l16haiti.html
...Lobbying for change
The US Congress is considering a proposal by the Barack Obama administration for $2.8 billion in aid for Haiti, and Watkins and the representatives of 33 development, human rights and faith-based organizations were lobbying to change the way the government delivered it. Nearly all US food aid is produced by American agribusinesses. In a letter to congressional leaders on 12 April the lobby group asked for "greater flexibility in how we deliver food aid, by permitting local or regional purchase of emergency food aid for Haiti, and the use of emergency non-food assistance, including vouchers, cash transfers, or safety-net programmes."
There are signs that US policy may be shifting. Watkins noted a small pilot programme in the 2007 Farm Bill that earmarked funds for the local and regional purchase of emergency food aid, and to a provision in a 2008 appropriations bill that allowed for similar procurements. "Both of these actions are precedent-setting," he said.
All this is in keeping with the wishes of the Haitian government; President Rene Preval expressed the hope that emergency food aid from abroad would soon come to a halt, saying: "If food and water continues to be sent from abroad, that will undermine Haitian national production and Haitian trade."...
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88857
