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Two years on from the earthquake: AFD has pledged €101M for reconstruction in Haiti
Priority has been given to rebuilding the Haitian State and to education, health and agriculture. Find out more from the video interviews with Yves Malpel, Director of the AFD Port-au-Prince Agency, and Pierre Duquesne, Ambassador for economic issues related to reconstruction and development. Go to the report
For details of all the projects and amounts committed, click here.
Since the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, AFD has pledged €101M for the reconstruction of the country, while pursuing projects that are already active.
It has financed development projects worth €64M in the sectors of urban development, risk prevention, health, education and agriculture. AFD has also provided €37M of budget support to the Haitian State.
Interview with Yves Malpel, Director of the Port-au-Prince agency
Yves Malpel first reminds us of the scale of the disaster, with 200,000 deaths and 1.5 million people made homeless. “In a country without a State, without resources, without banks, without middle classes”, the affected community is in an extremely difficult situation.
The first year, and its unprecedented mobilization, gave way to a year of doubt over the technical and legal difficulties of reconstruction and especially a political crisis which completely blocked progress in operations in Haiti for a whole year. So it is only now, in January 2012, that the fundamentals for public action are in place and that the reconstruction agenda will actually begin.
Although AFD is maintaining its pre-earthquake projects, the bulk of its activities concerns projects launched after, such as the reconstruction of the hospital and two poor neighborhoods in Port-au-Prince. But that is not all, as AFD is continuing to support the agricultural sector.
Mr. Malpel believes, moreover, that this is one of the most encouraging successes.
Haitians complain a lot about the productive sector being left somewhat on the sidelines by donors. This operation to support an agriculture sector that has been devastated – due to a lack of infrastructure, opening up too much to outside markets, etc. – is highly appreciable and appreciated. Indeed, it will create activities and wealth, especially in view of the agricultural potential of Haiti’s regions.
AFD’s priorities today are to implement all aspects of reconstruction projects in neighborhoods, including the construction of housing, the construction of infrastructure, the reconstruction of the hospital… The last project is enormous and cannot be implemented alone. AFD is consequently working in partnership with USAID, which is financing 50% of the project.
The project to rebuild neighborhoods, which is also huge, is being cofinanced with the European Union.
When asked about the spirit in the field, Mr. Malpel wished to emphasize the courage of Haitians who are living in extremely difficult conditions and work very hard. “They have an enthusiasm that is shared by the donors and NGOs who are on the spot. The results are, admittedly, not very visible, but it is really now that the seeds that have been sown are going to begin to spring up. The project has started and requires all our energy”.
Building better, 14 mn 52 video
This short film presents the range of AFD’s operations in Haiti by giving a voice to both Haitian and French stakeholders. It makes an initial review of AFD’s activities since the earthquake.
18 photos of AFD’s activities since the earthquake
Interview with Pierre Duquesne, Ambassador for economic issues related to reconstruction and development.
In this interview, Mr. Duquesne reminds us that two years on from the earthquake, the reconstruction is far from over. In financial terms, France had announced a substantial budget effort of €326 million, including €260 million of French bilateral aid and the remainder from the EC budget.
Out of these €260 million, at the end of 2011, less than 18 months after the effective launch of operations, over 70% had been transferred. The Ambassador considers this too be an extremely good result, above what has been observed at the global level, where the figure stands at around 53%.
Admittedly, these figures do not encompass the reality, but “they do mean that France keeps its promises”.
Alongside the reconstruction projects, the priority continues to be to support public action in Haiti and the (re)construction of institutions. Mr. Duquesne takes the example of the land registry, without which no viable and fair reconstruction is really possible.
The complexity of the task stems from the fact that short, medium and long-term activities need to be conducted simultaneously.
“No one imagined that things would be completed in two years. When you see that in two years, 50% of the gravel representing a volume of some 10 m3 has been cleared, whereas the clearance at the World Trade Center in New York, which had six times less volume, took two years. There were 1.6 million people in the camps, there are now only 500,000. Even if this is, of course, 500,000 too many.”
The innovation in terms of aid has been the intensive coordination between national and international cooperation stakeholders, and notably with all non-governmental stakeholders, NGOs of course, but also local/regional authorities, companies, Haiti’s diaspora and even academic establishments.
In this respect, Mr. Duquesne recalls the creation, at the time, of an innovative tool: the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), with a board of 28 members, including 14 Haitians, who did not only represent the executive authority, but the whole of Haiti, and 14 international members, including France. This commission (which was held until the end of October 2010, as provided for under the law that established it) made it possible for the different stakeholders to coordinate their action and promoted cooperation among them, as can be seen between France and the USA for the reconstruction of the hospital in Port-au-Prince.
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