The Haiti Accountability Project - HAP

A broad array of international donors pledged nearly $10 billion in long-term assistance to Haiti's earthquake recovery efforts during a daylong conference at United Nations headquarters. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the conference, titled "Towards a New Future for Haiti," by urging the more than 100 donors in attendance to provide $11.5 billion over the next 10 years for the reconstruction of the island nation left devastated by a 7.0-magnitude quake in January.

"What we envision, today, is wholesale national renewal -- a sweeping exercise in nation-building on a scale and scope not seen in generations," Ban said, according to the United Nations.

More than $5 billion of the $9.9 billion pledged Wednesday will be used for immediate recovery efforts over the next 18 months and will be administered by an interim reconstruction commission co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.

Full article at CNN

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The world's bill for the Haitian earthquake is large and growing — now $2.2 billion — and so is the criticism about how the money is being spent.

A half-million homeless received tarps and tents; far more are still waiting under soggy bed sheets in camps that reek of human waste. More than 4.3 million people got emergency food rations; few will be able to feed themselves anytime soon. Medical aid went to thousands, but long-term care isn't even on the horizon.

$1 billion from U.S.Donations from Americans for earthquake relief in Haiti have surpassed $1 billion, with about one-third going to the American Red Cross, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University said Friday. Other major recipients include Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and the U.S. wing of Doctors Without Borders, the center said.

An analysis of U.N. data shows that private donations make up the bulk of the total, accounting for more than $980 million of what has already been delivered or that donors have promised.

The United States leads all countries with its commitments of $713 million — with Canada, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Japan and the European Union among other top donors. Saudi Arabia poured $50 million of its oil wealth into the U.N. Emergency Response Relief Fund. Even countries with their own troubles rushed to Haiti's aid: Afghanistan provided $200,000.

A Nevada real estate developer agreed to send $5 million worth of circus tents formerly used by Cirque du Soleil. Leonardo DiCaprio and Coca-Cola are each sending $1 million. Dollar General is donating $100,000. Hanesbrands is shipping 2 million pairs of underwear.

But leaders including Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive are not happy with the way the aid money is being delivered.

Monitoring the moneyU.N. and U.S. officials said there is close monitoring of NGOs who receive funds. The U.S. Agency for International Development requires recipient groups to file reports every two weeks on how their activities are lining up with their planned programs, said Julie Leonard, leader of the agency's Disaster Assistance Response Team.

Governments tend to give funds to agencies from their own countries.

USAID paid at least $160 million of its total Haiti-related expenditures to the Defense Department, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, two local U.S. search and rescue teams and, in at least two instances, itself.

Tens of millions more went to U.S.-based aid groups. While much of that bought food and other necessities for Haitians, it often did so from U.S. companies — including highly subsidized rice growers whose products are undercutting local producers, driving them out of business.

One cent of every dollar has gone to the Haitian government.

Saudi Arabia's donation is essentially a blank check for the U.N. fund to spend on Haiti relief as it sees fit. So is Afghanistan's. DiCaprio's million is going through the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, while Coca-Cola and Dollar General's donations are headed for the American Red Cross. The underwear is going through the Atlanta, Georgia-based aid group CARE.

Full Article from AP Associated Press at MSNBC

American Red Cross $276-million raised
$80-million so far committed to emergency relief
Where it has gone: 69 percent of the money is providing food and water, 20 percent is for shelter, and 11 percent is for health and family services
How much it needs: The group is in the process of determining with other Red Cross organizations how much it will need for recovery efforts

Partners in Health $56-million raised
$15-million committed for the first six months
How much it needs: $100-million or more over the next 30 months

Oxfam $21.5-million raised by the U.S. organization
$92.8-million raised by Oxfam affiliates around the world
Where it will go: $18-million has been committed so far by Oxfam affiliates around the world for immediate relief
How much it needs: At least $100-million

Save the Children $18.2-million raised by the U.S. organization
$48-million raised by Save the Children groups worldwide
Where it will go: $15-million spent on shelter and household goods
How much it needs: $85-million to $115-million will be needed over the next two years

U.S. Fund for Unicef $49.1-million raised in cash and pledges
$44-million committed
Where it will go: Most of the money is now going for water and to deal with sanitation needs and to aid children
How much it needs: Unicef, the U.N. agency, issued an “emergency appeal” for $128-million for relief efforts

World Vision $27.6-million raised in cash by the U.S. organization
$78.5-million raised by World Vision’s affiliates worldwide
$8-million has been spent
Where it went: $6-million went to shelter, medical supplies, and other emergency items. About $1-million went to water and sanitation, and smaller amounts went to protect children, provide food, and meet other needs
How much it needs: A minimum of $100-million from World Vision affiliates around the world for a multiyear rebuilding effort

                                                                 Report from Philanthropy on Feb 21, 2010

 These amounts are estimates reported as of 02/03/2010, current amounts may be different.            
                                                            HAP has not personally verified these amounts.                                              

Lost in the ruins: Haiti's best and brightest - What a disaster!!!
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – They kept the books, had the training and fixed the computers. They were the educated few of Haiti, an up-and-coming generation of nurses, technicians, office managers and college students.

Now they're gone — just when their struggling country needs them most.

The Jan. 12 earthquake struck just before 5 p.m., destroying office buildings and disproportionately killing the young professionals who were going the extra mile to make Haiti work. Many were crushed at their desks.

"It is a generation that decided not to leave the country. They chose to work for the country," said Dieusibon Pierre-Merite, a Haitian sociologist with a United Nations anti-gang program that lost several staffers in the quake. "They are the ones who died."

Compounding the loss is a quickening brain drain, as people with the ability and means to leave abandon a ravaged country where more than 1.2 million people have lost their homes.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told The Associated Press he has watched with dismay as educated youths board planes to the United States and elsewhere. They leave because Haiti, always a difficult place to live, became impossible after the quake.

"I was looking at their faces: They were escaping a country and they had no intention to go back," Bellerive said. "I feel love for the people that have lost family ... but I believe it's even harder for the country to see living people that could do so much to rebuild Haiti, leaving Haiti."  Full article at Yahoo.com

Groups jockey for role in Haiti revival
Long a battle ground for aid organizations, quake-devastated Haiti is at the center of the politics for agencies and governments wanting to give assistance. At an encampment on the outskirts of Haiti's capital, physicians from three international aid agencies provide identical services. On a charter flight to Miami, competing doctors get into a shouting match before takeoff.

And at a search-and-rescue operation, one international team claiming ownership of the effort asks another to leave -- although the departing group has the equipment to do the job.

Haiti has long been fertile ground for international aid agencies that want a shot at helping the impoverished nation pull out of misery. But the politics of aid has become even sharper following the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that left more than 200,000 dead and toppled hundreds of thousands of buildings.

The behind-the-scenes jockeying -- even as hundreds of thousands remain without adequate shelter -- is likely to intensify as President René Préval pleads for more aid from Washington this week and the international community prepares to meet in New York later this month to discuss Haiti's reconstruction plans.

The battle includes aid groups known as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and U.N. agencies that want to be the chief humanitarian agencies, countries that are lobbying for a seat at the decision table, and leaders from around the world who fly in frequently making promises that have yet to be met.

``Every country is out to get a piece of the action,'' Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia. ``Did the earthquake release something that we don't know anything about?''

The answer, according to experts: a grab for cash.

``It's the biggest source of money,'' Mark Turner, a spokesman with the International Organization for Migration, said of the Haiti earthquake, considered to be the deadliest disaster to beset any single nation in the modern era. ``The world is pumping in money here and everyone wants in on the action.''

Since the devastation, more than $2 billion in assistance has poured into Haiti. But almost all of it has gone directly to aid groups, the U.N. and development agencies. Americans alone have donated $1 billion, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Full article at Miami Herald

Haiti rebuilding summit under way in Miami - Everybody is looking to make millions on the misery of Haiti
A Miami summit on Haiti reconstruction brings together government agencies and private contractors looking to participate in an expected rebuilding bonanza

Doug Brooks, president of the International Peace Operations Association, was in Turkey recently, working on an event on Afghanistan reconstruction, when an idea struck: Why not organize a conference on rebuilding Haiti in the wake of the devastating earthquake?

The hastily arranged Haiti summit got under way Tuesday and continues Wednesday at the Sofitel Miami Hotel. It has drawn about 140 people interested in participating in the rebuilding efforts in Haiti.

``It's been chaotic,'' Brooks said. ``We usually plan summits for at least six months. This one was in three-and-a-half weeks.''

Disaster areas, man-made and natural, are big business for members of IPOA, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group that put together the event with Global Investment Summits.

IPOA is a networking group for private firms that wade into war-torn and other disrupted areas, typically under government contracts, to restore stability and security.  Full article at Miami Herald

Haiti Demands Foreign Aid Accounting - Thursday, March 4, 2010 9:35 AM
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's prime minister demanded more information on Wednesday about foreign aid pouring into the earthquake-stricken country and urged that his government not be sidelined in reconstruction efforts.
Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive decried a lack of coordination by aid donors with his government but stopped short of saying all bilateral aid should be funneled through the government.

"We don't know who has given money to NGO's (nongovernmental organizations) and how much money have they given. ... At the moment, we can't do any coordination or have any coherent policies for giving to the population," Bellerive told a news conference.

The EU and its members have together pledged about 609 million euros ($834 million) to Haiti since the quake, including 120 million euros ($164 million) from the EU Commission in immediate humanitarian aid and a further 300 million ($411 million) in the medium term, a Commission spokesman said.  Full article at Newsmax World

U.N. Is Faulted as Lacking Coordination of Aid and Security in Haiti
UNITED NATIONS — Humanitarian efforts by the United Nations in Haiti have lacked sufficient coordination with local organizations in delivering aid and establishing security, according to an independent assessment released on Tuesday.

One consequence was a surge in the sexual abuse of women and girls living in camps for the displaced, with some young girls trading sex for shelter, said Emilie Parry, an aid consultant who helped write the evaluation of the United Nations’ effort for Refugees International, a nonprofit organization that advocates on behalf of refugees.

“Women reported to us that there has been a lot of violence and sexual abuse at nighttime,” Ms. Parry said, noting that there is no system of nighttime patrols in the makeshift camps where many displaced people have been living.

“By all accounts, the leadership of the humanitarian country team is ineffectual,” said the report, based on 10 days of evaluations in February. The report, titled “Haiti: From the Ground Up,” also acknowledged that the scale of the disaster made the response a singular challenge. 

“There is too much of a gap, too many people are being left out of the response,” Ms. Parry said.

The United Nations has given shelter materials to more than 523,000 people, or 40 percent of those in need, said Martin Nesirky, the spokesman for Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, with 232,000 additional tarpaulins and 22,000 tents en route. The World Food Program and partner organizations have delivered food assistance to 4.3 million people, Mr. Nesirky said.
“It is the most complex humanitarian response we have ever had to deal with,” said Ms. Bragg, adding that the United Nations had brought some order to utter chaos. “It would be very easy to make negative comments about how things are coordinated.” - Full article at NY Times 

Ex-Dictator Loses Swiss Ruling Over Haitian Cash
Switzerland moved Wednesday toward establishing the legal basis to confiscate millions of dollars allegedly looted by the former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier. Full article at NY Times

Chile Was Ready For Quake, Haiti Wasn't
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The earthquake in Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti last month -- yet the death toll in this Caribbean nation is magnitudes higher.

The reasons are simple.
Chile is wealthier and infinitely better prepared, with strict building codes, robust emergency response and a long history of handling seismic catastrophes. No living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the Jan. 12 disaster crumbled their poorly constructed buildings.

And Chile was relatively lucky this time.
Saturday's quake was centered offshore an estimated 21 miles (34 kilometers) underground in a relatively unpopulated area while Haiti's tectonic mayhem struck closer to the surface -- about 8 miles (13 kilometers) -- and right on the edge of Port-au-Prince, factors that increased its destructiveness.

'What the Earthquake Did Not Bring Down, the Rains Will'
Tabuteau is among some 1.2 million Haitians left homeless and vulnerable as the rainy season approaches with storms that figure to send deadly mud waves down hillsides stripped bare by years of deforestation. And then there will be the hurricane season, which begins in June.

"We will certainly have landslides," said Edmond Mulet, the new top representative for the United Nations here. "What the earthquake did not bring down, the rains will, because all the hillsides are very fragile now."

More than 200 years of poverty and environmental degradation had left Haiti more vulnerable to storms and natural disasters than most. But the earthquake leveled the nation's institutions. It destroyed almost all colleges and schools in the Port-au-Prince area, reduced churches to rubble, flattened government offices and police stations.

So it is up to aid workers to figure out how to quickly move more than 240,000 families out of flimsy shelters and into storm-resistant quarters. Meanwhile, the Haitian government is ordering a massive national damage assessment and rebuilding plan on a scale that dwarfs the response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed nearly 230,000 people in 14 countries.

"Unlike many other post-disaster situations, Haiti is in a position to simultaneously take care of the affected population but also have a clear look at the future," said Kim Bolduc, the top humanitarian coordinator here. "Haiti has been just waiting for an opportunity. Unfortunately it came from a disaster, but we cannot miss that chance."

Mulet, the top U.N. representative, ... has a strategy that he, Préval and Bellerive all vow will work, one they will present at the donors conference in New York.

"Everybody wants to do everything," Mulet said. "I think this is an opportunity also for the international community to do things differently."  Full article in the New York Times

Haiti's elite sees business opportunities emerging from reconstruction
PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI -- Last month's earthquake battered Reginald Boulos's small empire, destroying one of his supermarkets, badly damaging a hotel and killing two workers at his car dealership.

But with foreign aid flowing and a sympathetic world watching, Boulos envisions a new Haiti: one focused on quickly creating jobs while purging its ruling class of the cronyism that helped make this one of the world's poorest countries.

"This is what the earthquake is today -- an opportunity, a huge opportunity," said Boulos, a brash 54-year-old former doctor who once worked in Haiti's most notorious slum. "I think we need to give the message that we are open for business. This is really a land of opportunities."

Haiti's elite -- a small, politically connected group as comfortable lobbying President René Préval as lawmakers in Washington -- is positioning itself for business opportunities emerging from their country's reconstruction. The textile industry in particular, which survived the temblor largely intact, is gearing up to add tens of thousands of jobs, thanks to U.S. legislation approved in 2008 that gives Haitian garments duty-free, quota-free access to the United States.

But for some Haitians, it is a cruel irony that a business community they consider clannish, corrupt and responsible for the country's backwardness could be spearheading efforts to jumpstart the economy.

"Haitian business people, they exploit the workers, and they lie to the multinational agencies about working conditions," said Yannick Etienne, a labor organizer with Batay Ouvriye, a workers' rights group. "When you see the way they treat people here, it's difficult to really expect much from them."

Union organizers say factory pay, which hovers around $4 a day, amounts to sweatshop wages, but Sassine said that is three to four times what most Haitians earn. He noted that the number of jobs in the textile industry has doubled in just a few years to more than 28,000. With the help of American trade preferences, he and IDB economists say, that number will quickly reach 150,000, with each of those jobs indirectly creating three more.
Full article at Washington Post

US military weighs role in battered Haiti
PORT-AU-PRINCE – U.S. military officials are deliberating how long American troops should stay in Haiti to tend to its earthquake-battered population, knowing that work remains but reluctant to take on much of the rebuilding that could commit the force to the region for years.

"We're very deliberate about this," said Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in his first visit to Haiti since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck on Jan. 12.

Going forward, "we will have enough troops here to meet the security requirement," Mullen said.

At its peak in late January, the ship had some 540 patients and nearly 1,400 staff. That number began to drop rapidly as field hospitals on shore ramped up capacity and the most acute cases were treated and those patients released.

After discharging 75 more patients about a week ago, there are now only seven patients still aboard the USNS Comfort. The ship still maintains about 970 personnel.

Throughout Haiti, the U.S. military mission still draws some 11,000 troops — 6,000 on the ground and 5,000 floating offshore. But their mission has fundamentally changed.  Full Artice at Yahoo

Haiti on edge after steady aftershocks - happened on 2/22
Haiti was rocked by a second series of aftershocks on Tuesday, toppling some structures damaged in the deadly earthquake last month and raising tensions among Haitians already on edge.

The magnitude-4.7 quake rattled the capital at 1:26 a.m. (0626 GMT), followed some seven minutes later by a smaller aftershock whose magnitude was still unknown, according to Eric Calais, a geophysicist from Purdue University who is studying seismic activity in Haiti.

Another aftershock measuring magnitude 4.7 struck on Monday, and it was followed by two other small tremors. They struck near the epicenter of the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people.

The U.S. Geological Survey usually detects Haitian quakes of magnitude 4 and above, but smaller tremors often are not detected due to a lack of seismometers in Haiti.

"It's important that people stay cautious," Calais said. "In the next three months, there's a significant risk that there will be an aftershock larger than 4.7."

Some walls that had toppled in last month's quake spilled on to the street Tuesday and damaged telephone polls split in half. There were no reports of injuries.

"It feels like the Earth is shaking all the time since last month," said Ermithe Josephe, 48, who is still sleeping outside in a tent next to her crumpled house. "We can't sleep with all of these aftershocks and we're too afraid to go to work sometimes."  Full article From AP Press

What will your Haiti relief donation go toward?
The list of agencies helping with relief efforts in Haiti keeps growing. Their no. 1 need? Money. But how will they be using your donations? We compiled a list of just some of the organizations and asked them. Full article at CNN

Transparency International moves to stem corruption in Haiti aid effort and beyond
Transparency International (TI) is working on setting up an aid monitoring project for Haiti to prevent corruption in the relief effort, the group said on Monday as it launched a handbook to help aid agencies combat practices that stop help from reaching the needy.

TI is already in discussion with major donors to Haiti about the project, which the anti-corruption watchdog feels is vital given the country's history of graft, the desperate state of its population after the Jan. 12 earthquake and the logistical problems of the relief effort.

"Just as in the (Asian) tsunami, there's a huge amount of resources going in and it's really important that someone is keeping an eye on it," said Roslyn Hees, a senior TI advisor and co-author of the handbook called " Preventing Corrution in Humanitarian Operations".

"It's what I'd call a perfect storm for high corruption risk: you have a seriously damaged institutional infrastructure, a country with endemic corruption, a weak or fragile state in the best of circumstances and sudden influxes of huge amounts of resources to a highly vulnerable population," Hees told AlertNet from Geneva.  Full article at ReliefWeb.

Magnitude 4.7 - HAITI REGION
A strong aftershock of magniture 4.7 is said to have hit Haiti the morning of Monday February 22 at 04:36:04 AM.  The powerful aftershock hit at a distance of 35 km (20 miles) W of PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti and a depth of 10  km (6.2 miles) set by location program.  At the time of this reporting no information is available about potential damaged caused by this latest aftershock.  For more details go to USGC - Magnitude 4.7 - HAITI REGION

U.N. aid chief 'disappointed' with Haiti earthquake relief efforts   
The criticism from John Holmes, the head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, focuses on the United Nations' sluggish implementation of its humanitarian "cluster strategy," which assigns key U.N. relief agencies responsibility for coordinating the delivery of basic needs in 12 sectors, including water and shelter.  A "lack of capacity has meant that several clusters have yet to establish a concise overview of needs and develop coherent response plans, strategies and gap analyses," Holmes, who described himself as "disappointed," wrote in the e-mail. "This is beginning to show and is leading others to doubt our ability to deliver."  -  Full article from the Washington Post.

Haiti leader says quake toll could reach 300,000
"You have seen the pictures, you know the numbers, more than 200,000 bodies picked up in the streets, counting those that are still underneath the rubble, perhaps we could arrive at 300,000 deaths," Preval said at a meeting between Mexican officials and the countries of the Caribbean trade bloc.  - Full article from the Washignton Post.