Haiti's rebirth will take years of hard work

MONTREAL — Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told a conference on Haitian reconstruction Monday that things have improved somewhat in Haiti in the past several days, but it will take at least four to five years to restore the country to the far-from-ideal state it was in before the earthquake.

An estimated 200,000 people died in the massive Jan. 12 earthquake, and Bellerive said there is an immediate need for 200,000 tents for twice that number who find themselves homeless.

"These are 400,000 people for whom there seems no hope. Their tomorrow is not clear today," said Bellerive. "Many who are in hospital and are fit to leave have no home to go to."

Those people also need medical assistance and measures must be taken to prevent epidemics, conference delegates heard. The Haitian prime minister said much of the housing in the quake zone is beyond repair and will have to be rebuilt.

Bellerive added a redistribution of the country's population will have to be considered, since over-concentration in and around the capital of Port-au-Prince meant that 60 per cent of the country's gross domestic production capacity was wiped out by the quake.

"What I ask today is to stabilize the emergency response and to seriously reflect on reconstruction."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered delegates an even longer timeline for restoring Haiti.

"Sustainability is key," he told Monday's conference, attended by foreign ministers and senior officials from 14 countries involved in Haiti relief operations.

"We need to commit to Haiti for the long term. It is not an exaggeration to say that 10 years of hard work await the world in Haiti. The international community must be prepared for a sustained, significant effort in Haiti."

Among the principles of the relief effort that Harper specified are efficiency, co-ordination and accountability.

"We need to focus on effectiveness. The Haitian people deserve that and our own taxpayers expect it. We must hold ourselves and each other accountable for the commitments we make. More than ever, we must be united to help Haiti."

Bellerive noted that Haitians themselves must take the lead in rebuilding their shattered country.

"It is a shared task, but it must be led by Haitians," Bellerive said.

He said the situation is dire, but he also sounded a hopeful note, saying that essential infrastructure and instruments of governance are being progressively restored and that no mass exodus of Haitians from the country should be necessary.

"We do have opportunities before us. This disaster has not changed the fundamental capacity for harmonious development."

Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said Monday Ottawa has committed an initial $155 million in aid to Haiti and that Canadians, through private donations, have already contributed $67 million in funds that will be matched by the federal government.

Harper praised the compassion of private citizens who have contributed.

"Thanks to decisive international action, medical, humanitarian and search-and-rescue support is pouring into the country. This generosity — both public and private — is a testament to the kindness and compassion that unites humanity in the face of catastrophe."

Agricultural production in Haiti, meanwhile, has collapsed as subsidized agricultural goods from rich countries have flooded Haitian markets and undercut prices for domestic Haitian produce.

Despite pledges Monday to rebuild Haiti, Canada, France, the United States and other countries in the Friends of Haiti group stopped short of saying they were prepared to curtail their own farm subsidies in order to help Haiti.

Agricultural subsidies in rich countries have been the main stumbling block in the current Doha round of World Trade Organization talks. Subsidies to farmers in Quebec, the rest of Canada and other parts of the developed world mean foreign food can be sold in Haitian markets at prices lower than local production costs.

In an interview at the conference, Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada, said: "One of the reasons why there has been such population pressure on Port-au-Prince is that farmers have had to migrate to the capital because they cannot support their families through their own agricultural production anymore.

"It's true that the world is coming together to provide support to Haiti to rebuild after the earthquake. But there are much more fundamental changes that are required in the global economic system and in trade rules, as well as in Haiti's government and society. The root causes of poverty in Haiti did not start with the earthquake."

Heading into the Montreal conference, many international aid bodies were calling for rich countries to cancel Haiti's foreign debt. But the debt issue had no political legs at the conference.

Bellerive said in an interview before the start of the morning session that Haiti received $1.2 billion in debt relief last summer. Compared with "all of the other real needs" facing Haiti right now, "the weight of the debt is minimal," he said.

While world leaders huddled inside, a small group of protesters took to the sidewalk outside to denounce the military aspect of the humanitarian project, so far.

"Medical relief, not guns," read one of the placards.

Protesters were critical of how many soldiers have been deployed to Haiti, suggesting that they temporarily slowed the distribution of food, water and other necessities. They also suggested foreign forces were concentrating on protecting property, not people.

"Haitians have been conducting their own rescue operations while Canada and the other nations have been concentrating on the places where the wealthy congregate," said Nikolas Barry-Shaw, a member of Haiti Action Montreal, the group that organized the protest.

The so-called ministerial preparatory conference on Haiti has assembled representatives of 14 countries that form a United Nations-affiliated group called "friends of Haiti." The European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are also represented, along with major donors and key regional and multilateral partners.

The goal of the conference is to contribute to a clear and common vision and path for Haiti's early recovery and longer-term reconstruction.

It will lay the groundwork for a larger reconstruction conference to take place in the coming months.

With files from David Johnston