The Haiti conundrum
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One year after the massive earthquake that killed over 230,000 and left 1.5 million homeless victims in tents, the poorest country in the Eastern Hemisphere is still without a government, without billions worth of aid promised, without enough help to fight cholera, without a final result of last year's first-round presidential elections – and without any sign of any solution to the major problems facing its ten million people.
One year on, Haiti remains in shambles.
Oxfam, the British-based charity, in a report at the end of 2010, said it was concerned that reconstruction had barely begun one year after the earthquake. It also said rebuilding was paralyzed by a lack of leadership from the Haitian government and the international donor community.
Oxfam estimates that only 5 percent of the rubble in affected areas has been cleared and only 15 percent of the required basic and temporary houses have been built in the year since the disaster.
Large scale reconstruction – especially of homes – cannot begin before the mountains of rubble are cleared and Oxfam estimated over one million people remain homeless as the first anniversary of the earthquake approached.
The irony is, however, that while most donors have provided funds for temporary housing, very little money has been allocated for clearing rubble or repairing homes that can be rebuilt.
The UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti says public donations – as well as funding from donor governments and multilateral institutions for the emergency aid effort – were exceptionally generous.
However, it also points out that of the US$2.1 billion pledged by governments for reconstruction in 2010, only 42 percent had been delivered by the end of the year.
Most aid agencies – and some UN officials – openly blame the donors' unwillingness to coordinate aid efforts for much of the delays.
Critics argue that too many donors from rich countries have pursued their own aid priorities and have not effectively coordinated amongst themselves, or worked with the Haitian government, thus seriously weakening the government's ability to plan and to deliver on its responsibility to lead reconstruction.
The UN itself is also under a measure of national scrutiny – and even criticism. Its medical and relief efforts have been good, but the international body hasn't been able to evade the fingers of blame pointed in its direction by many regarding the October 2010 cholera outbreak that's already claimed over 3.500 lives in ten weeks.
