22733: (Arthur) Devastated Haiti needs a support plan - The Guardian (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Devastated Haiti needs a support plan

Monday July 19, 2004
The Guardian - Letters

This week the international donor community meets in Washington to decide its
role in Haiti's future development.

In the year that Haiti celebrates the 200th anniversary as the world's first
free black state, it has seen its democratically elected president ousted and
more than 2,500 deaths from flooding.

The cycle of poverty, violence and environmental disaster in Haiti threatens
its very existence as a functioning nation state. It is the poorest country in
the western hemisphere: 75% of its people live on less than £1 a day. Haitian
governments and the international community have failed to listen to Haiti's
poor and have failed to address their needs.

Although the British government has prioritised bilateral aid to the poorest
countries of the world it has provided only £400,000 in direct aid to Haiti
over the past three years. The British government is a major contributor to the
EU aid budget, with a £1.8m contribution. But, along with the rest of the
international community, it needs to do more in terms of aid, trade rules and
political support for an effective development plan.

We urge the British government to use its influential voice within the
international financial institutions and at the donors' conference to give priority
to the needs of Haiti's poor and to involving them in decisions regarding the
country's future.

Haiti needs a national development plan that meets the needs of all sectors
of society and that will lead to just and sustainable development capable of
reconstructing this devastated and divided nation.

Richard Miller
UK director, Action Aid

Christine Allen
Executive director, Catholic Institute for International Relations

Paul Valentin
International director, Christian Aid

Charles Arthur,
Director, Haiti Support Group

Marie Staunton,
Chief Executive, Plan UK

Beverley Jones,
International Director, CAFOD

Justin Forsyth
Director of the Campaigns and Policy Division, Oxfam

Tom Arnold
Chief Executive, Concern Worldwide



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This email is forwarded as a service of the Haiti Support Group.

See the Haiti Support Group web site:
www.haitisupport.gn.apc.org

Solidarity with the Haitian people's struggle for justice, participatory
democracy and equitable development, since 1992.
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