22749: Durban: Wash Post Op/Ed by PM Latortue (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

                 Forging Haiti's Future
                               By Gerard Latortue

   Haitian leaders meet today with donors in Washington for a
high-level "pledging" session  at which other nations will state
their commitments to aid the recovery of my country. It is my
fervent belief that we will forge not just a financial accord,
but a new beginning.

 Yes, some $900 million must be raised for Haiti's  needs over
the next two years, but this is about much more than money. It
is about putting in place the institutions, the practices, the
accountability and the partnership to ensure that Haiti develops
in  the decades to come.   Never was such a partnership more
needed. The recent political crisis and armed rebellion have
taken a further heavy toll on what was already the poorest
country in the Western Hemisphere. The numbers are sobering.
Behind each one lies a life just 700 miles from these shores,
and yet so far removed as to be almost unimaginable. Five
million people -- two-thirds of the population -- live  on less
than $1 a day. Four million  cannot read and write. Half the
population lives in cities with no access to clean water.

 And yet contrast this bleak picture with the enormous potential
of Haiti and its people. Those who attended the recent
Smithsonian Folklife Festival  on the Mall had a chance to see
just a small sample of that potential -- in painting, sculpture,
music, crafts and folklore, where Haitian culture is nsurpassed.
Moreover, Haitians are not just artists; they are also
hard-working people, even in the most difficult of
circumstances.

  Read of Haiti today and you will read about the violence, the
deforestation and the poverty. You will not read about the
potential breadbasket in the northeast of the country, which, if
it were connected to Port-au-Prince by a good road, could lower
the cost of transporting produce and bring prosperity to a
long-neglected area. You will not read of the coast near Jacmel
that used to be a popular tourist destination, boasting some of
the most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean -- and can be again.
Nor will you read of every Haitian mother's determination to
save even what little she has to send her daughter to school.
This is our promise and our potential.

  Ultimately, Haiti's destiny lies in Haitian hands. Our country
needs free and fair elections, good and honest leaders,
transparent and accountable government. This must be based on a
new commitment to national dialogue and a new sense of security
for every Haitian. In addition Haiti need good friends and
neighbors and a new partnership with the international
community.

  Over the past two months, with donors, U.N. agencies, civil
society and the private sector, Haitian leaders have begun
identifying Haiti's needs for the next two years. We discussed
what lessons to take from the $2.5 billion in aid that went to
Haiti over the past 10 years, with results far short of
expectations. Our conclusions are remarkably similar: On the
government's part, there was too little commitment to political
and economic governance, transparency, and the monitoring of
programs and results.  On the donors' side, a laundry list of
projects draped in donor flags, with no strategic focus. Donors
turned on the spigot of aid and watched it pour out, only to
turn it off again over the next four years. Development could
not take place in that context.

  Today a very different approach will be discussed. Haiti's
government has identified priority programs for the next two
years, not as a series of feel-good projects for donors but as
part of a national development plan designed by Haitians and led
by Haitians. We will set up a committee on which the government,
Haitian civil society and donors will be represented to monitor
progress and results and hold both government and donors
accountable. The focus will be on building institutions,
developing communities, and putting in place the conditions for
free and fair elections and respect for the rule of law. In
the first 100 days of our leadership, we have demonstrated our
ability to use our meager national resources wisely.  We are
deeply committed to ensuring that every penny disbursed by the
international community in support of our national development
plan will be spent effectively and accounted for.

 During the transition period ahead, we will focus on delivering
real benefits to Haitians. Quick-impact programs that we have
identified for the next two months include the creation of
44,000 jobs; the collection and disposal of 50 percent of
garbage in urban areas; the upgrading of 500 slum dwellings; and
the doubling of electricity service, to 12 hours per day, in
Port-au-Prince.  Over the next two years, we have outlined
programs to improve nutrition for more than 1  million poor
children and their mothers, orphans, street children,
and destitute elderly; to immunize 80 percent of children under
age 1 against diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DPT3) in 15 key
districts; and to rehabilitate 1,500 schools.

  The partnership being forged today between Haiti and the
international community holds the best promise of success my
country has enjoyed for decades.  I hope it will be a model for
a new relationship between donors and sovereign states, in which
we can work together to create a better future, not as givers
and takers, but as equal partners.
--------------------------------------------------
 The writer is interim prime minister of Haiti.