Rebuilding Haiti | Bricks & Mangoes
Fri, January 29, 2010 
Labadee Haiti beach via Flickr’s StGrundyAn unbelievable half of American households have sent money to Haiti during the recent earthquake crisis. Governments around the world hve pledged $1 billion so far. The question now is — what to do with the money. How do suporters of Haiti guarantee that this devastated half an island is redeveloped in the best interests of the Haitan people.
Haiti grows some of the best mangoes in the world, but most of them rot just miles from the US for lack of adequate roads and well-governed ports. Excellent coffee exists but isn’t sold by Haitans on the world market. Rather it’s sold to coffee producers in the Dominican Republic. As a resort, Haiti has many beautiful beaches but not enough hotels and an airport without night landing lights.
Many people don’t like the Smarty Pants crowd sitting over in Davos right now, at a meeting of the World Economic Forum. They include Bill Clinton, who led 200 international investors to Haiti last October.The point is — as one one commentator asked — what will happen to the money?
The NYTimes brings this topic front and center in today’s Op Ed piece Building Haiti’s Economy, One Mango at a Time, authored by Oxford economics professor Paul Collier, and Jean-Louis Warnholz, managing director of a business consulting company advising Haiti in 2009.
The American construction industry is mired in deep recession and so has the excess capacity to meet Haiti’s sudden need for low-cost housing, roads, bridges and other structures. If American construction firms can harness Haitian labor to reconstruct (safer) homes, then the challenge will be to lure other businesses in their wake so that temporary jobs in reconstruction are replaced by long-term jobs in manufacturing, agriculture and tourism. via NYTimes
A long history of coups and trade embargoes have pushed Haiti in place, next to Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. Yet Haiti is much safer and terrorists don’t bound there today. For better or worse, the women of Haiti aren’t in burqas, although their struggles as women should not be minimized.
Woman of the La Saline Market in Port-au-Prince via Flickr’s JansochorGeorge Soros has donated $25 million for smart investments that catalyze Haiti’s competitive advantages. This is probably the largest gift to Haiti so far.
The challenge is how will this effort be mobilized and coordinated? To date political institutions and NGOs have tried to ‘save Haiti’ before the earthquake. What if business — working simultaneously with political institutions and NGOs takes the lead — with Haitan labor — or rebuilding the country that in fall 2009 seemed no longer doomed to fail. Anne
Building Haiti’s Economy, One Mango at a Time, authored by Oxford economics professor Paul Collier, and Jean-Louis Warnholz, managing director of a business consulting company advising Haiti in 2009
Reader Comments (1)
Wanted to make sure you saw this recent post about Haiti and agriculture on the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet blog. All the best, Danielle Nierenberg, www.borderjumpers.org
Looking to Agriculture to Help Rebuild in Haiti
http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/looking-to-agriculture-to-help-rebuild-in-haiti/
A recent article in the New York Times highlights the critical role that agriculture will play in rebuilding Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake of January 2010.
Food security is not a new problem in Haiti, and development organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme, as well as nongovernmental organizations like Heifer International and Oxfam, have been forced to halt food programs in the country as these groups themselves attempt to recover from the disaster.
Before the quake, FAO alone was implementing 23 food and agriculture projects in Haiti, hoping to improve access to food in the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Prior to the disaster, an estimated 46 percent of Haiti’s population was undernourished, and chronic malnutrition affected 24 percent of children under five.