United Nations Headquarters in New York was bustling on Wednesday as delegates from donor nations attended a conference to respond to the January earthquake in Haiti and to help lay the foundations for the country’s long-term recovery and reconstruction. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged donors to provide $11.5 billion over the next 10 years for the reconstruction of Haiti, already the Western Hemisphere’s poorest before the the earthquake.The conference was co-chaired by Brazil, Canada, the European Union, France, and Spain as leading donors to Haiti. The total value of damage and losses sustained has been calculated at approximately $7 billion, according to the UN Development Program (UNDP).
Meanwhile, MADRE joined a coalition to organize a press conference on Wednesday to send a message to sponsors and donor countries: women's full participation and leadership in the reconstruction of Haiti requires that a gender perspective be integrated into ongoing discussions and planning. Women are disproportionately impacted by the earthquake, mainly because they face gender discrimination, which exposes them to higher rates of poverty and violence. Because disasters amplify existing social inequalities, a gender perspective is needed to avoid recovery policies that inadvertently reproduce discrimination against women. More information and recommendations from the coalition of women's organizations is available here.
Governments and aid agencies should provide funding and training to women's organizations themselves to develop mechanisms to hold governments and non-state actors accountable to their commitments. Furthermore, such aid should need to become open and transparent by integrating systems of accountability. So far, we only know that of the $9.9 billion pledged by 59 donors, $5.26 billion is for the financing of specific projects of the national action plan. The funds are going to be managed managed by a multi-donor reconstruction group for Haiti and an interim commission over which Bill Clinton, United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti, will preside alongside Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.
We have yet to see how these funds will support capacity development, advance non-discrimination policies and expand the participation of women's groups in the reconstruction process.
We will soon be sharing photos and video from the event on this blog.
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