BRUSSELS, Nov 28 (Reuters) – An international donors meeting for Haiti should focus on helping it build a civil service to deal with the problems it faces after retreating from the brink of civil war, a senior United Nations official said on Tuesday.
Haiti is recovering from decades of political violence topped by a 2004 ouster of then-leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide, but remains one of the world’s poorest countries, plagued by brutal armed gangs, corruption and poor infrastructure. The donors conference, taking place in Madrid on Thursday, aims to pledge money for the mid- and long-term development of the Caribbean country. The U.N. says the majority of Haiti’s state budget comes from international aid. Donors had already pledged $750 million in July for Haiti’s immediate economic needs, but without a functioning administration this money had been poorly absorbed, U.N. special envoy Edmond Mulet told reporters.
“They already received a lot of money, which is in the coffers of the government, but they don’t have the administrative capacity, the civil servants to even spend that money,” he told reporters.
“That is why … one of the main requests of the Haitian government to the international community will be to help the government to help train and finance civil servants’ jobs — to create the administrative structures which don’t exist anymore.”
Countries including the United States and organisations such as the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, which are all due to attend, will discuss Haiti’s request.
They will consider ideas such as creating a multilateral trust fund run by the World Bank to channel any money pledged.
Haiti said in July it needed $7 billion to help revive its moribund economy through investment in roads, agriculture, tourism and institutional reform.
Mulet said Thursday’s conference had no targets for a final sum.
