STORY OF INTEREST: Clinton promises three more years in helping Haiti

Bill Clinton

NEW YORK, CMC – Former United States President Bill Clinton says he will dedicate the next three years of his life in helping to rebuild Haiti after the devastating January 12 earthquake.

The United Nations Special Envoy to the impoverished Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country and co-chair of Haiti’s reconstruction commission, said he “wakes up every day  sick at heart that we aren’t doing more” to help Haiti.

“I don’t want to be naive. It’s going to be a stretch,” Clinton told reporters here on Sunday, referring to his three-year commitment to the country.

“It’ll be hard, but I’m excited about it,” he added.

“Enough so that after a couple of heart incidents and being sixty-three years old, I am prepared to spend three years on it,” he continued. “They want the right things for their country.”

The 42nd United States president said more needs to be done on all fronts in Haiti.

“In the camps, we need more sanitation and protection from blow down. In the streets, we need more jobs. We need to begin reconstruction. Then do something on the education front,” he said.

“Then the health-care system needs to be built. I used to say rebuilt, but then I realised there really wasn’t one before,” he added.

“We’ll have to rebuild the infrastructure,” Clinton continued. “We’ll have to rebuild the agriculture.”

Last week, Clinton said he planned to put pressure on governments that have been slow to deliver on promises to aid Haiti’s reconstruction efforts.

“I’m going to call all those governments … the ones who said they’ll give money to support the Haitian government,” he said.

“I want to try to get them to give the money, and I’m trying to get the others to give me a schedule for when they’ll release it,” he added, blaming the slow pace of aid partially on the global economic crisis.

“I think that they’re all having economic trouble, and they want to hold their money as long as possible,” Clinton continued.

He said six months after the earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people and left an estimated 1.3 million homeless, most governments that promised to help Haiti have not delivered any funds at all.

Clinton said less than two percent of the US$5.3 billion pledged at a Haiti donors conference in March, at the United Nations, has been handed over to the U.N.-backed body established to handle it.

The World Bank is also urging donors to deliver on aid pledges in order to keep the reconstruction momentum going.

As fiscal agent for the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF), the Washington-based financial institution said that it has to date received formal confirmation for only US$98 million.

In March, the international community had pledged US $5.3 billion to Haiti at a donors’ conference at the United Nations.

To date, the World Bank said Brazil has been the largest contributor to the fund with US$55 million, followed by Norway (US$31.2 million), Australia (US$8.6 million), Colombia (US$ 3.2 million) and Estonia (US$50,000).

The banks said additional contributions are expected from Canada, the European Commission, France, Georgia, Mauritius, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, and the U.S.

“We are currently urging the international community to make good on their pledges, but we also understand that many donor countries need to get approval from their budgetary systems,” said Pamela Cox, World Bank regional vice president, stating that she expects contributions to be met over the lifetime of the trust fund.

“We’re going to have to be clever,” Clinton said. “But if people can see the homes coming back, and if we could put many, many more people to work, I think that would make a huge difference.”

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1 Comment

  1. July 19, 2010

    You mean plunder Haiti.

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