European Commission

Six months ago, Haiti went through an unimaginable disaster. During my visit at the end of April I saw images that I can still vividly recall. Destroyed cities, buildings and streets make a terrible sight, but what I remember the most is the sense of fatalism on people’s faces. These people lost their families and friends, houses and jobs, basically – everything they had.

Since day 1, the EU has been aside of Haiti’s people. Haiti remains at the top of my agenda and the European Commission delegation works hard on the ground to support the Haitian people and their country. After the emergency phase, during which aid was distributed on a massive scale, the Commission is now focussing on the quality of relief to be put in place with the participation of both the Haitian Government and civil society.

We have to realise that the degree and complexity of the task was first considered insurmountable by some. We should remember that the government itself as well as humanitarians were heavily affected by the catastrophe.  Despite this, the country has not seen the outbreak of epidemics as was feared, nor were there any cases of corruption or mismanagement of the aid funds. Emergency aid has fulfilled its role – it aid made it possible for the country to remain stable and for the authorities to begin the task of reconstruction.

I want to remind us all, that our priority should be to help Haitians to get their lives back. They are clear on their priorities: they rightly want jobs, which would allow them to gain income; they want to educate their children and live in safe houses. This will take time, but on my side, I will make sure that these goals will be of high priority for the European Commission.

During my visit to Haiti I signed five financing agreements for an overall amount of €460 million. This money will be spent on the projects focusing on the reconstruction and development of the country following the earthquake. These projects aim at rebuilding of the State, infrastructures such as schools and roads, and the social sectors. Out of this sum €300 million has already been committed. This sum is of course additional to the aid we were providing to Haiti before this tragedy. This just shows that the Commission was interested in helping people in Haiti also before the earthquake.

One of the urgent needs is to bring children back to school. Thanks to the Commission funds the Haitian government was able to bring children back to schools that were not destroyed and create child friendly spaces for those who could not attend school immediately because of the damage caused by the earthquake. The fundamental aim of the child friendly spaces is to ensure that children have time and space to have some structured, constructive, creative learning and play time to bring normalcy to their lives.

I am always pleased to hear that our initiatives have an impact on people. This is a case of Anette, a mother of two years old Fedeline and six years old Farline. She said she noticed the changes in her daughters, since they have started coming to the program. She said that the girls “are happier, they’re learning something new every day, and they’re able to stay clean”,  which is difficult but critical in Place de la Paix. “I like the way they work with the kids and the kids like coming.” This example simply shows how important it is for international community to be present in Haiti.

We also inaugurated the site for the Ministry of Home affairs, whose reconstruction will be taken in charge by the EU, as well as the Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Commerce. To enhance disaster risk preparedness capacities the Commission is also reinforcing the civil protection system in Haiti which is prone to disasters for natural and man-made reasons (such as hurricane). This is particularly important as the hurricane season in Haiti is about to start.

But the Commission didn’t just deliver one-off help. We continue to support the projects and activities in Haiti which aim at restoring government capacities to deliver social services to the population. So far €50 million has been paid this year for this purpose.

Only within the weeks following the disaster the Commission contributed with €35 million in budget support to the Haitian Ministry of Finance. This timely payment has helped Haitian budget in covering most urgent spending in the aftermath of the disaster. In view of the important budgetary needs we foresee additional payments in 2010.

Another €15 millions have been paid for other ongoing projects outside the budget support. The infrastructure sector counts for the main part of this money. But education, support for civil society and cultural initiatives are other sectors that are supported by the Commission’s ongoing projects, adapted according to the changing needs of the reconstruction process.

Now, all the actors involved, from the donors’ community side and from the Haitian government, must work together to find the optimal for the challenges facing the whole of Haiti’s population in the aftermath of the earthquake.  Finding shelter for those who lost their homes remains a central preoccupation, and requires a response that goes beyond the logic of “tent cities” or camps, particularly in and around Port-au-Prince. Numerous alternatives are being discussed, including relocation of a part of the population to other less crowded urban areas. These proposals are closely linked to the need for promoting balanced economic growth throughout the country, strengthening social cohesion and reducing poverty.

I hear that one of the biggest challenges for Haiti is to coordinate the reconstruction efforts in a coherent way. To address this issue a Joint Government-Donor Interim Haiti Recovery Commission was inaugurated on 17 June to supervise reconstruction process. This Commission gathers representatives of the Government and donor’s Community and will implement the Action Plan for Haiti Reconstruction. It will also be in charge of ensuring that the reconstruction funds are spent transparently and honestly.

I would like take this opportunity to thank many people around the world who have generously supported Haiti one way or another. In Europe, I saw many people spontaneously organised various actions and donated money to Haiti. I trust that this spirit of solidarity will stay with us as Haitians get back on their feet and begin to build the foundations of a stable and prosperous country.

I will continue to support Haiti together with my colleagues from the European Commission and I will keep the European and international community alert on the needs of our Haitian friends. We pledged as one, we must deliver as one. Haitians are counting on our actions, not only on our words.

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