24515: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Donors' Conference (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By STEVENSON JACOBS

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, March 17 (AP) -- The roads are still bad, hospitals
don't have enough beds and many schools can't feed their students.
   A year after an uprising ousted former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide, there are few signs of improvement in the Western Hemisphere's
poorest country, which has received only a fraction of the more than $1
billion in promised aid needed to rebuild its shattered infrastructure.
   Officials from 10 countries and five multilateral institutions will meet
Friday in an urgent bid to address the delay, which some say has hindered
the interim authority's ability to govern and could undermine an already
traumatized public's faith in fall elections.
   Priorities at the one-day meeting in Cayenne, French Guiana, include
bolstering Haiti's beleaguered police force to counter a surge in violence
and the procurement of additional financing for general elections in
October and November, officials say.
   "I will be extremely disappointed if we leave without putting money on
the table to bring back to Haiti," U.N. envoy Juan Gabriel Valdes told
reporters ahead of the meeting. "It's urgent for the population to see
progress in order to heal the society."
   But progress has been fleeting so far, most agree. Donor nations and
multilateral lending bodies pledged $1.3 billion for Haiti at a July 2004
meeting, yet only $220 million -- less than a fifth -- has been disbursed
to date, said Auguste Kouame, a World Bank official in Haiti.
   "There has been an inadequate disbursement of funds," said Tim Carney, a
former U.S. ambassador to Haiti who heads the Washington-based Haiti
Democracy Project.
   The United States has given the most so far with $100 million, followed
by the World Bank, the European Union, the Inter-American Development Bank
and Canada. The money has paid for a handful of projects including garbage
collection and electricity subsidies.
   But money for more visible items like road construction and additional
police has yet to arrive. Health and education also remain sorely
underfunded, officials say, with hospitals unable to provide beds for some
patients and many schools unable to feed students.
   "We've been waiting and we're still in deep need," said Roland Pierre,
Haiti's planning minister.
   Officials blame the lag in part on bureaucratic wrangling among donor
nations, but acknowledge that a lack of Haitian professionals in technical
areas such as engineering has also slowed projects such as road repair.
   "It's not a problem of disorganization, it's a problem of capacity,"
said Nicholas Frelot, a French diplomat who coordinates aid programs in
Haiti. "A lot of educated Haitians have left for the United States, Canada
or France. It's one of the biggest problems in Haiti right now."
   The aid shortfall has prompted fears that an interim government already
hampered by a roiling security crisis and a stagnant economy could be
further weakened, undermining public trust in the transitional process.
   Armed ex-soldiers who helped oust Aristide in a February 2004 revolt
still hold sway throughout much of the countryside while pro- and
anti-Aristide gangs wage frequent gunbattles in the slums of the capital.
More than 400 people have died in recent clashes.
   Scarce funds has also meant little job creation for citizens, most of
who are unemployed and survive on less than a $1 a day.
   "The assumption is that if people don't see any difference in their
lives, they will see no value in the transition and may not participate in
elections" in October and November, said Kouame of the World Bank.