Haiti - Economy : Forum on the aid granted to Haiti
This week was held a two-day forum on the effectiveness of the aid granted to Haiti after January 12, 2010, more than a hundred people participated in the days of debate and discussion, representatives of the Haitian Platform Advocacy for Alternative Development (PAPDA) were also present.
The economists Kesner Pharel, Eddy Labossière and Camille Chalmers and former UNDP representative in Haiti Mr. Boutroue, intervened to make an analytical assessment of the assistance provided to Haiti, and make recommendations. The organizers of this forum, ActionAid and Oxfam America, for their part indicates that the aid to Haiti after the January 12 do not meet the criteria of development, noting that only 43% of the promised aid (4.6 billion) has been paid so far.
The economist Camille Chalmers expressed concern that the international financial crisis can be an excuse for donors to reduce the aid granted to Haiti. While for the PAPDA te essential thing is that Haiti define their own instances and development models.
"...Today it is clear that there is a failure because we are talking of about 4 billion U.S. dollars which are almost disbursed in recent months, and if you take a little look at Port-au-Prince, Leogane, Jacmel... . you will see that there are not really things that were done, the people see that the results are very thin, so far we have 500 to 600,000 people under tents... [...] We have a situation of impoverishment of the peasantry [...] and we also have social indicators hat deteriorates [...] Unfortunately, the international aid is almost always used as an instrument of political domination instead of helping the people out of poverty..." declared Mr. Chalmers.
This forum is conducted as a prelude to the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF-4) to be held in Busan in South Korea from November 29, 2011 to December 1, 2011, where world leaders will examine the opportunities and challenges presented by today's development landscape. Their aim is to build wide consensus on a new framework to support global development.
