Is Sustainable Recovery Possible for Haiti?

In Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, the earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter scale in early January 2010 had devastating effects. The Government estimates that more than 200,000 people (or 2.1 per cent of the population) were killed; 300,000 were injured and 1.9 million were displaced. Early estimates of the economic cost of the damages range between 65 per cent and 200 per cent of GDP. Haiti’s immediate policy challenge is to rebuild homes, buildings, basic infrastructure, schools, health centres and businesses. But the real challenge is even greater. Haiti will need to aim at rebuilding its entire economy in a sustainable manner, to such an extent that it will be more resilient to future shocks and disasters and will be able to solve its problems of widespread poverty, job insecurity and environmental degradation. This will require not only large amounts of resources but also a much improved institutional capacity to manage those resources and to curb insecurity in the country.