30295: Karshan (news) HSG calls in donors to honour pledges to support...(AlterPresse) (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

Alter Presse : Haiti Support Group calls on donors to honour pledges to
support the government’s rapid impact social and economic programme

29 mars 2007

Press release of the Haiti Support Group

Submitted to AlterPresse on 29 March 2007

The British solidarity organisation, the Haiti Support Group, is very
concerned about the slow disbursement of international assistance for the
government of Haiti’s programme to urgently address social and economic needs 
in  the
most impoverished and conflict-prone areas.

The Haitian government unveiled its Social Appeasement Programme (in French
: Programme d’Apaisement Social, PAS) in June 2006, and it received strong
support from participants at international donor conferences on Haiti in July
and November of that year. During the latter part of 2006, a number of
countries  pledged to disburse assistance to support the PAS. However, 
government
ministers  have subsequently complained that much of the funding has not been
disbursed.

As recently as mid-February, Haiti’s Prime Minister, Jacques Edouard  Alexis,
told a heads of government CARICOM meeting that the expected results of  the
PAS had been delayed by the slow disbursement of pledged financial support.
Following that meeting, CARICOM called on the donor community to be responsive
to the concerns of the Haitian Government on this critical question. The same
 concerns were voiced by the UN secretary-general in his report on Haiti
published in December. That report concluded that “the implementation of the
proposal by the Prime Minister for a Programme d’Apaisement Social has not
advanced significantly” even though the “tangible improvements envisaged in 
the
programme…are crucial in order to promote stability and encourage further
political progress”.

In the same vein, but more recently, the Rio Group of Latin American and
Caribbean nations meeting at the beginning of March 2007 noted that it was  “
important for the donor community to honour its obligations in co-operation
projects geared towards the eradication of poverty, the improvement of basic
health care, and the promotion of strengthening Haitian institutions”.

Following a meeting between bilateral and multilateral donors and
representatives of the Haitian government in Washington DC last weekend, the 
Haiti
Support Group (HSG) understands follow-up missions will soon be sent to
Port-au-Prince. In this context, the HSG calls on those donors that have 
already
pledged funds for the PAS to urgently prioritise the release of this 
assistance.
If, for whatever reason, these bilateral donors are unable to keep to their
pledges, the HSG believes that, as a matter of the utmost urgency, the
multilateral donors must fill the breach.

The HSG’s Charles Arthur said, “We have heard a lot from the international
community about how it wants to help Haiti. There is a democratic government
in  place with an approved programme to address some of the fundamental causes
of  division and instability in the country. There is really no excuse for the
 donors to withhold promised funding.”

Arthur continued, “Most of the funding to support the government’s PAS is
supposed to come in the form of bilateral assistance, and we understand that
some projects funded by Belgium, Brazil, Canada, and the USA are underway.
However, eight months since the government appealed for - and was promised -
financial support for the programme, large amounts have still not been 
released.
Unless there is immediate action to remedy this situation, there is a real
danger that the Haitian authorities will miss out on a rare opportunity to
intervene and break the cycle of poverty, hopelessness and violence, and to 
show
the excluded and marginalized sections of society that there is some point in
 having an elected government.”

Background

The Programme d’Apaisement Social (PAS) is one of the main priorities of  the
new government that came to power in June 2006. The PAS, as well as
allocating funds for public-sector salary arrears, for training and job 
opportunities
for recently dismissed public-sector employees, and for payments  to former
soldiers, will fund a host of small projects at the level of the  country’s
administrative communes. These small projects, that will cost a total  US$50m
over five years but which the government hopes to implement as soon as 
possible,
are intended to address the immediate needs of the poorest members of  the
population. Spending will be focused on three main objectives :

Increasing basic services provision in general, including projects to
provide drinking water, sanitation, electricity supply, health care and 
education.

Increasing access of the most disadvantaged sectors of society to services,
including the establishment of community canteens, initiatives to reintegrate
street children, management of public places for leisure activities for
youth,  humanitarian aid, and initiatives to boost economic renewal.

Initiatives to stimulate national production. This will include encouraging
the use of local resources to produce goods and provide services, the
provision  of inputs and credit for agricultural producers and artisans, and 
job
creation  for unskilled workers.








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