29168: (news) Chamberlain: Larger UN force would help Haiti aid implementation (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

     By Gilbert Le Gras

     SINGAPORE, Sept 14 (Reuters) - Haiti would benefit from faster
implementation of its aid programmes if it were assigned a larger U.N.
peacekeeping force to ensure the safety of development workers, a top World
Bank official said on Thursday. In August the United Nations renewed the
mandate of its peacekeeping force for six months at its current size of
about 9,000 soldiers and police despite U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan's
call for a 12-month extension.
     "That is very much on the low side for U.N. peacekeeping forces when
you look across the spectrum of the world and I think donors have
recognised that, without that security-development nexus, you're not going
to get progress," said the World Bank's Latin America and Caribbean
director, Caroline Anstey.
     Troop and police contributions are typically determined by donor
countries' foreign and defence ministries while aid funding is approved by
finance and development officials, and coordination is sometimes lacking,
she said.
     "We need to bring those together so security and development can go
hand in hand so, for example, we can go into Cite Soleil and do development
projects," Anstey said in reference to the most dangerous shanty town in
the Caribbean country of 8.6 million people.
     "It's very hard for development institutions and NGOs to deliver
cleaner water, clean streets, sanitation in areas that are insecure," she
added.
     On Monday U.N. troops took over several slums in Port-au-Prince that
had been held by armed gangs believed to be loyal to former president
Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who was forced from power in February 2004.
     A meeting of 26 donor countries and agencies in July topped up and
extended the two-year-old International Cooperation Framework (ICF) with
$750 million for 13 more months after the original $1.1-billion ICF
expired, well beyond Haitian President Rene Preval's request for $500
million.
     "If you look back five years, 10 years, 15 years, there was a tendency
for donors to come in with competing programmes draped in national flags, a
lot of overlap, a lot of lack of coordination," Anstey said.
     "Three years ago Haiti barely had a budget. Now it has a budget, it's
on time, it's transparent. We, the World Bank, helped set up a civil
society monitoring mechanism to make sure that transparency exists and I
think the government has done a lot to put together an economic governance
reform agenda," she added.