By Kay Scrimger
September 15, 2008

In less than four weeks, Hurricanes Fay, Gustav, Hanna and Ike have hit Haiti, the least developed and poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Estimates of how many Haitians have died vary from 320 to over 600. On September 10, Agence France-Presse reporter Jacques Guillon quoted the UN Mission in Haiti as saying that 101 bodies had been found in Gonaives, a city of 300,000, in the last 24 hours.

At least 800,000 people, almost ten percent of the population, are in dire need of humanitarian aid. Half of these are children, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva.

The hurricanes struck all of Haiti’s ten regions. Destroyed bridges and washed out roads have created isolated pockets of misery across the countryside. Rescue workers are encountering immense difficulties in delivering aid. With water and mud making roads almost impassable, rescuers are primarily dependent on planes, ships, and helicopters.

Even before the storms, food prices in Haiti had risen by 40 percent since the beginning of the year, causing severe food shortages and food riots. Slightly more than half of Haitians live on less than $1 a day. Deprivation and desperation are contributing to violence in places such as Gonaives, where a mob ambushed a truck carrying emergency food.

Marc Lacy wrote in the New York Times on September 10, “Suffering long ago became normal here, passed down through generations of children who learn that crying does no good….[Since the storms] the little that many people had has turned to nothing at all.”

Haitian President Rene Preval said, “This is Katrina in the entire country, but without the means that Louisiana had.”

Assistance has come from the United States and the United Nations through the World Food Program, UNICEF, and other UN agencies and groups. The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) has pledged $7.1 million in relief. A U.S. Navy amphibious ship has brought helicopters that can fly supplies to various parts of the country. The United Nations has appealed for nearly $108 million on September 10 for humanitarian assistance to help the people of Haiti.

Private humanitarian groups assisting in the effort include the Red Cross, Oxfam, Direct Relief International, and Doctors Without Borders.

The U.S. Government is Haiti’s largest bilateral assistance donor, followed by Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Japan and Taiwan. For example in fiscal years 2004-2006, the U.S. spent more than $600 million for improving governance, security, rule of law, economic recovery, and critical humanitarian needs.

The Inter-American Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and the United Nations and its agencies provide multilateral assistance. All aid is coordinated informally by the World Bank.

Haiti ranks 146th of 177 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index. A recent State Department document attributes its economic stagnation to earlier inappropriate economic policies, political instability, a shortage of good arable land, environmental deterioration, under-capitalization and lack of public investment in human resources, and other factors.

In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, September 9, Mike DeWine pointed out Congress’ passage of the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act (HOPE), which uses “trade incentives to encourage foreign direct investment – the most powerful tool of development.”

DeWine noted that the “flaw in the HOPE Act is its three-year lifespan,” and he praised language in the recent farm bill to extend these trade benefits for ten years” and simplify trade law so that the Haitian apparel industry can compete with major Asian suppliers in the U.S. market.”

Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz created the Mayors’ Hemispheric Forum in Miami in 2006 in order to strengthen the ties of unity and friendship linking the cities of the Western Hemisphere. Past Conference President Mayor Richard M. Daley held the Forum in Chicago in 2007, and Diaz hosted the Mayors Hemispheric Forum in June 2008, in conjunction with the Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Miami.

In Miami the mayors considered poverty reduction, environmental policies, infrastructure, and digital literacy. Mayor Muscadin Jean-Yves Jason of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, attended and made a presentation in the session on Poverty Reduction, along with Daley.