[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
THE CRISIS IN HAITI:
ARE WE MOVING FAST ENOUGH?
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JULY 29, 2010
__________
Serial No. 111-110
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
______
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
Samoa DAN BURTON, Indiana
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California
BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois
BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RON PAUL, Texas
DIANE E. WATSON, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL E. McMAHON, New York J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, CONNIE MACK, Florida
Florida JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee TED POE, Texas
GENE GREEN, Texas BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
LYNN WOOLSEY, California GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
BARBARA LEE, California
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina
DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
JIM COSTA, California
KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
RON KLEIN, Florida
Richard J. Kessler, Staff Director
Yleem Poblete, Republican Staff Director
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Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York CONNIE MACK, Florida
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
GENE GREEN, Texas CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona DAN BURTON, Indiana
ENI F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California
Samoa RON PAUL, Texas
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
RON KLEIN, Florida
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
The Honorable Rajiv Shah, Administrator, United States Agency for
International Development...................................... 1
Mr. Jimmy Jean-Louis, Actor, Goodwill Ambassador, Pan American
Development Foundation......................................... 33
Mr. Samuel A. Worthington, President and CEO, InterAction........ 46
Mr. Jonathan T.M. Reckford, Chief Executive Officer , Habitat for
Humanity International......................................... 58
Barth A. Green, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chairman and Co-Founder ,
University of Miami Global Institute for Community Health and
Development, President and Co-Founder of Project Medishare..... 67
Ms. Joia Jefferson Nuri, Chief of Staff, TransAfrica Forum....... 72
Mr. Michael Fairbanks, Author, Founder and Director, SEVEN Fund.. 83
Ms. Nicole S. Balliette, Deputy Director for Haiti Emergency
Earthquake Response, Catholic Relief Services.................. 91
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Rajiv Shah: Prepared statement..................... 4
The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New York, and Chairman, Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere: Prepared statement......................... 28
The Honorable Connie Mack, a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida: Prepared statement........................... 30
Mr. Jimmy Jean-Louis: Prepared statement......................... 36
Mr. Samuel A. Worthington: Prepared statement.................... 49
Mr. Jonathan T.M. Reckford: Prepared statement................... 60
Barth A. Green, M.D., F.A.C.S.: Prepared statement............... 69
Ms. Joia Jefferson Nuri: Prepared statement...................... 74
Mr. Michael Fairbanks: Prepared statement........................ 85
Ms. Nicole S. Balliette: Prepared statement...................... 93
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 122
Hearing minutes.................................................. 124
The Honorable Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, a Representative in Congress
from American Samoa, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Asia, the
Pacific and the Global Environment: Prepared statement......... 125
The Honorable Eliot L. Engel: Material submitted for the record.. 128
The Honorable Donald M. Payne, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New Jersey, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Africa
and Global Health: Material submitted for the record........... 130
Mr. Michael Fairbanks: Material submitted for the record......... 134
Written responses from TransAfrica Forum to questions submitted
for the record by the Honorable Barbara Lee, a Representative
in Congress from the State of California....................... 141
THE CRISIS IN HAITI: ARE WE MOVING FAST ENOUGH?
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THURSDAY, JULY 29, 2010
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:39 a.m. in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Eliot
L. Engel, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Engel. Good morning. I think we will get started. I
want to welcome everyone who is here to the House Foreign
Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere hearing on the
crisis in Haiti: Are we moving fast enough? We are going to
dispense with the usual procedure where I would give an opening
statement and Mr. Mack would give a statement, and others would
give a statement. We will give our statements before the second
panel because I know that our first panelist, Dr. Rajiv Shah,
USAID Administrator, has to leave to go to the White House in
about 1 hour, and I want to hear what he has to say.
So let me very briefly say, Dr. Shah, how happy I am to
have you here. I know we are all very happy to have you here.
We have talked about Haiti and other things many times. I am an
admirer of your work, and your caring and the work that you do.
You bring a very good complement of someone who has done a
very, very good job, but you also have a heart and that is very
important. I think that is important. You have the intellect
and a heart, and that is a very good combination.
So, we are all ears. Dr. Shah is the Administrator, and
USAID has a tremendous task in dealing with the crisis in
Haiti, and it is working very hard, and he, in particular, is
working very hard to address the problems, so Dr. Shah, we are
all ears, and then we will ask you some questions.
STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE RAJIV SHAH, ADMINISTRATOR, UNITED
STATES AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Shah. Let me start by thanking you, Mr. Chairman, for
your attention to this issue and this hearing, and your
unwavering support of USAID and our team in Haiti that has been
working so tirelessly over the last 7-8 months to really help
make sure that this effort succeeds. I also want to thank
members of the committee. It is an honor to be here and have
the opportunity to have this discussion with you, and I
apologize in advance for my timing today, but I appreciate your
consideration.
Two and a half weeks ago served as the 6-month anniversary
of really the most dramatic and devastating natural disaster to
ever face the Western Hemisphere, and it is an opportunity for
us to reflect on the scale of the disaster, the magnitude and
lessons learned from the response, and to recalibrate our
approach as we go forward.
To reflect on the scale of the disaster, we are all aware
of the incredible suffering that the Haitian people had to live
through through this tragic earthquake. More than 230,000
people perished, and damages are estimated to be upwards of $7
billion, a significant percentage of Haiti's annual GDP, 28 of
29 government ministries were destroyed, up to 15 percent of
the civil service workforce had passed away, and most of this
disaster happened on a base of already low income, slow
infrastructure and low equity in terms of very high poverty
rates, high mountain efficient rates, limited access to food
and basic services in and around certain communities in Port-
au-Prince
In this context, I remain quite proud of the entire U.S.
Government and American response. More than half of all
families in this country found it incumbent upon themselves to
give directly to the Haitian relief effort. The President asked
us to mount a swift, aggressive, and coordinated response, and
together with so many agencies across the Federal Government
and in particular with the Department of Defense and the U.S.
Armed Forces we mounted essentially the largest single response
to a disaster ever. This includes efforts in the food area to
feed more than 3.5 million people, clean water was provided to
more than 1.3 million people, the health sector was supported
with unique assets,including the Comfort Hospital Ship, a broad
range of medical disaster assistance teams, and support for the
NGO network in Haitian hospitals that in total U.S. personnel
saw more than 30,000 patients.
Shelter, which was perhaps the most difficult of the
various sectors in which we worked, was also an area where we
were able to provide 1.5 million people with basic shelter and
materials; we being the broader international community, and we
were able to create work opportunities for more than 20,000
people on a day-to-day basis.
These are important accomplishments in the context in which
they took place, and in the fog of relief where data and
information was often missing. But, of course, they will not
fully meet Haiti's needs today or going forward.
To address those needs and to do it in a partnership with
the Government of Haiti, we have engaged in a robust effort to
plan the relief to recovery transition. This started with the
March 31 donors conference that brought the global community
together to make real commitments to Haiti for its future.
Notably at that conference the Haitian Government presented
their own plan and their won vision of a future that is based
on some central tenants that we are now trying to abide by.
First, they expressed a commitment to decentralize their
economy and create economic opportunities and employment
opportunities outside of Port-au-Prince. That is the defining
feature of our reconstruction efforts.
Second, they presented the World Bank and international
communities damage needs assessment and committed themselves to
rebuilding the basic infrastructure of Port-au-Prince and of
nearby communities.
And third, they presented an economic development plan
based on the assets that Haiti has for agriculture, energy,
water management, and a range of other productive growth
sectors that they could attract investments, create jobs, and
help build a brighter future.
The relief to recovery work continued with the creation
recently of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission. This
commission, co-chaired by Prime Minister Bellerive and former
President Bill Clinton, represents a unique opportunity and a
learning from the tsunami in Acheh Indonesia. What we learned
was that given the broad global interest and commitments we
need a strong centralized capability to coordinate and direct
the overall relief and construction effort. This commission
will report to President Preval, and take on that task.
Finally, as we seek to help Haiti rebuild itself we intend
to help Haiti build back to a better and higher standards, and
this will require USAID to do some things very differently:
First, we are committed to pursuing a strategy that is focused
an aligned and in partnership with the strategy of the
Government of Haiti. I am eager to talk more about that but I
feel we are on path in getting that done.
Second, we are pursuing a broad range of public-private
partnerships and innovations such as the recently announced
partnership to help create mobile banking platforms in Haiti
since such a small percentage of Haitians actually have access
to the formal banking system.
Third, we are reforming our procurement system so that we
can work with small and minority-owned businesses in the United
States more effectively, and we can work with local partners in
Haiti so that as we are spending the recently approved
supplemental resources we are doing that in a way that builds
real capacity and real institutions in Haiti that can support
Haiti's long-term development and support Haiti's own
sustainability.
Finally, I will just conclude by thanking you again for
your attention to this issue and your support from the moment
this crisis started. It is reflective of a unique commitment
that the people of America have to the people of Haiti and that
this President shares, and that we are trying to work
effectively to implement.
So thank you, and I look forward to your questions and
comments.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Shah follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Dr. Shah. Again my thanks
on behalf of the Congress and the American people for the job
you are doing.
Let me first ask you this: As we look back in the many
months since the earthquake, what would you say have been our
biggest failings? What would you say that we need to improve,
or what have we noticed about the population there that perhaps
we didn't contemplate several months ago? What can we do in
Congress to focus on some of these shortcomings?
Mr. Shah. Well, thank you for that question. There are
actually a broad number of areas where we can do better in
these efforts. You know, most of international humanitarian
relief has been run on essentially a very modest budget
compared to other comparable activities, and there has not been
a robust decades-long kind of investment in the coordination
structures and the capacities to support effective and
coordinated humanitarian relief abroad.
So, the first set of recommendations, and we have conducted
now two different after action reviews and actually just this
evening are conduct an interagency high-level policy after
action review, but in the relief space we have a number of
specific things we are trying to do. One is to establish an
international relief framework that would help us work in more
coordination with the United Nations and with other countries
from the get-go so that we are not creating structures on the
fly in Haiti or in a disaster relief environment in that
context.
Often the U.N. helps set up that structure. In this case
and in the unique situation the U.N. itself had lost much of
their capacity in Haiti and suffered a really tragic loss of
life, so that took longer than it otherwise would to set up,
but we are working on that international relief framework.
A second set of things is to have the resources to more
rapidly bring the kind of assets into the theaters as are
necessary. In this case the defense department was uniquely
supportive in being able to open the airport quickly and being
able to have a strong personnel presence very fast and sending
the Comfort Hospital Ship. We believe the civilian response
side needs to have more ready access to certain assets like
those and others in order to work more effectively.
The third set of things would be around how we plan the
relief to reconstruction and oversee that process. Clearly, as
every step of the way there has been the need to have strong
and effective decision making from the Government of Haiti on
many issues that can be seen as very technical issues, and some
issues that are seen as very significant political issues.
In both sets of decisions, having a strong and effective
communications with the government at all levels will be
effective, and in this case I think we have learned that we
need to make sure that diplomatic capability is strong, is
supported, and is continual and operates at all levels so that
we are not just bringing every big decision that needs to be
made to President Preval, and asking him to take that one. So,
I think that those are some of the things.
In terms of sectors where I think the international
community could do a lot better job clearly some of the things
we are working on now related to shelter and ruble removal are
areas that are immediate priorities, but really you can look
across every sector of work and identify areas that we can do
better, sir.
Mr. Engel. Let me ask you because you mentioned
reconstruction efforts. The Interim Haiti Reconstruction
Commission is still not fully staffed, I believe. When will it
be completely up and running?
Mr. Shah. Well, sir, the IHRC is an important innovation
and is absolutely critical to the long-term success of the
reconstruction effort. I visited there 2\1/2\ weeks ago, and
actually met with staff. At that point they might have had 25
or 30 staff. Some of that is consulting support, pro bono
consulting support from firms here in the United States. But
they are up and running. I think their goal is to build a
significant staffing capability and then to physically house a
few key people from each international aid agency and foreign
ministry in a single physical space, and that will allow for
sharing of information and joint planning, and engagement in a
way that otherwise would simply not be possible, and I know
that they are in the process of building that team.
But they are already operational in terms of able to review
projects and programs, and we are already in a dialogue with
them to make sure that as we get going with the early
reconstruction efforts they have approved it, they have
reviewed it, they have offered their comments, and we are doing
it in coordination with them.
Mr. Engel. Before the earthquake, Haiti had been nicknamed
``the Republic of NGOs'' because there were so many NGOs
operating in the country. There were estimates between 3,000 to
6,000 NGOs. If you divide that into Haiti's population of about
9 million, one NGO per 1,500 to 3,000 people, and public
services were provided by NGOs instead of the government.
So let me ask you, is the effect of NGOs, now the donors,
on the government's capacity a concern for the reconstruction
effort, and if so, how can reconstruction be pursued in a way
that enhances rather than undermines the capacity of the
Haitian Government? How can NGO activity be better coordinated
among themselves and with the Haitian Government and donors?
Mr. Shah. Well, I appreciate that question. It is a very
important one. I would just highlight on your next panel you
will have Sam Worthington from InterAction who played a
uniquely helpful role for us in the early relief when we
provided resources to InterAction to help coordinate the NGO
operations and bring them into the fold of the larger
humanitarian and international response.
I thought that was a very effective, low-cost effort and
could be a model for future engagement of humanitarian relief
and how we coordinate with the NGOs. But I would also that as
we go forward with the reconstruction I know there are a large
number of NGOs, as has been identified, but if you look at
which ones are the largest and most capable partners that have
the most reach, it is a much smaller number, and we need to
take those NGOs and integrate them into the Interim Haiti
Reconstruction Commission and make sure they are represented in
that, and make sure they work along the lines with that.
I was on the phone just yesterday with the head of the Red
Cross to make that suggestion, and I think the NGOs, especially
the larger ones that will have the larger portfolios, will be
more oriented around participating in that system, and we think
that is very important. But you called attention to an
important issue. We dealt with it in the relief effort through
our partnership with InterAction and through the U.N.
coordinating structure, but for the reconstruction we are
hoping that the IHRC will be the vehicle that coordinates those
activities.
Mr. Engel. Well, the NGOs have done a wonderful job and we
all take our hats off to them. Let me ask you one final
question. As you know, there was an earthquake in Chile shortly
after the earthquake in Haiti. It was of a much greater
magnitude than the earthquake in Haiti, but because the
buildings in Chile are basically built to code, good code,
there were many, many fewer casualties; I think under 100 in
Chile.
When I went to Haiti, it was amazing to me to go into the
U.S. Embassy, where if you didn't know there had been an
earthquake you would never know it because our embassy was
built up to the best building code standards and therefore
there wasn't any destruction whatsoever that I could see. How
can we guarantee that when Haiti is rebuilding, and obviously
it will take many, many years to rebuild Haiti, that we have
these buildings built up to code so if there is ever an
earthquake there again the loss of life will be minimal?
Mr. Shah. Well, thank you for that question. Certainly
building back to a higher code is absolutely part of the
strategy of building better, and we have identified about
400,000 structures, homes that people have left, and are
conducting habitability assessments for those homes.
Approximately half of those have been conducted. There was
about 176,000 completed assessments when I was there 2 weeks
ago.
Of those that have been completed, we think about half are
categorized as yellow homes that need some reconstruction for
people to move into, and then the others are split between
green homes that are ready for people to go back into and red
homes that need to be reconstructed from the ground up. In all
of those reconstruction efforts we are using improved
construction methodologies, training local masons and local
construction firms to work with our partners to do the
reconstruction in a way that builds back better, to a higher
and more protective level of code. And we have learned from
other earthquakes like in Peru, around the world, that unless
you train and partner with local construction firms and come up
with low-cost ways to build back to a better code it simply
will not happen at the kind of scale that I think we all expect
in order to protect the people of Haiti from future disasters.
So, in this case we are using local materials for rebar,
using improved methodology for the production of cement,
teaching better leveling methodologies. I learned more about
masonry than I ever thought I would, but it is important in
order to make sure that we build back to a higher code, as you
point out, and I think we believe we are able to do it at a
minimum of additional cost if we use local materials and train
local firms on how to do that.
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much. Mr. Mack.
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I also thank you so
much for taking the time to be here with us this morning and I
know you are on a tight schedule, but we do appreciate it.
First, Mr. Chairman, I think I would like to commend the
U.S. military for their involvement and swift action, and with
their help. I would also like to acknowledge the U.S.
Ambassador who is dedicated to helping the people of Haiti, and
I would also like to tell the people of Haiti that although it
has been some time since the earthquake we still think of them
every day, and that their perseverance shows. There is a lot of
pride in Haiti, and the remarkable people in Haiti, and so I
just wanted to make those comments, Mr. Chairman.
I listened to some of your statement and read some of the
statement, and then listened to the chairman's questions, and I
think what kind of goes through my mind is there is some basic
necessities that are needed. There are things like water,
shelter, restroom facilities, basic human needs. If you could
maybe just talk a little bit about where we are in those needs,
and then also maybe talk a little bit about the bureaucracy or
the things that may be slowing down what--you know, the
American people are very giving people, but what they don't
want is their help to Haiti tied up in red tape and
bureaucratic processes. There is an expectation that when we
commit ourselves to Haiti's recovery that we expect to get
things done and we don't want to hear about how there is a
bureaucratic problem in delivering those resources, so if you
could talk to those couple of points, I would appreciate.
Mr. Shah. Well, thank you for your opening comments.
Clearly without both the scale and capacity of the U.S.
military and the professionalism and compassion through which
our armed services actually provided services in those early
days and weeks and months this would not have happened at the
scale at which it did. And I would just point out that many of
our NGO partners went out of their way to point out that our
armed forces were actually working in a way that was very
amenable to partnership with NGOs and with others as they were
carrying out this mission in Haiti, and I think that is an
important thing to note.
I also want to address your points about basic necessities.
Clearly, as you look across food, water, shelter, latrines and
a range of other things, the early relief effort was conducted
at a very large scale. Conducting that relief with that large
scale comes with some risks as you transition from relief to
reconstruction.
So, for example, we had a feeding program that reached 3.5
million people, largely with free food. Some of the early food
was purchased locally but beyond that much of it came in as
food assistance. It was absolutely needed. But we also had to
track 22 different commodities and markets and understand the
effect that was having on market prices because Haiti is still
largely an agricultural economy, and we didn't want to create
an environment where farmers wouldn't have the incentive to
produce.
So, we have worked with the Government of Haiti to scale
down the free food general distributions, and instead have
targeted feeding programs for infant and young children and in
schools, an for pregnant women.
In water, water has been a real success story where we had
more because of some unique attributes of the relief effort,
most notably, the distribution of chlorine tabs with water that
was trucked in from the Dominican Republic we were able to get
to a higher level of clean water, clean drinking water access
in Port-au-Prince than existed pre-earthquake, and initial
studies conducted by the CDC at 56 different sentinel nodes
indicated that as a result they felt real disease had been
reduced in Port-au-Prince compared to pre-earthquake levels by
about 12 percent. These are very tenuous gains because, of
course, there is a long road ahead, but it is important to note
that I think that was a positive outcome.
Shelter, I think, was the toughest and remains the
toughest. Millions of people have access to shelter materials,
but getting into transitional shelters and away from tents and
other things that are less protective, transitional shelters
can actually last for 3-5 years, and they can use the basic
frame of the shelter to build a proper home on, that is the
challenge now and we are trying to get 135,000 of those built.
The U.S. Government is committed to building 47,500. The
overall effort has produced about 6,000 so far, and we expect
that it will accelerate but it will take some time.
And latrines and sanitation is a real challenge as well,
even pre-earthquake the percentage of the population that
didn't have access to safe sanitation was far too high, so we
are working on that.
You asked specifically about what attributes of the
bureaucracy sort of slowed the process down, and I would say
coordination across the broad range of donors, partners, NGOs,
and investors. I would say that decision making on behalf of
both the government and the implementing partners of the relief
effort so that when we need to identify land, for example, that
can be used for reconstructing transitional shelters, so that
that is done.
Mr. Mack. You are talking about the Haiti Government?
Mr. Shah. That is right. That is right. And a lot of times
they have to have the visibility into what the needs are in
order to make those decisions and determinations. I am pleased
to note that in the last few days they have in fact identified
specific plots of land that can now be used for much
accelerated rubble removal effort and for much accelerated
transitional housing effort, but it took a long time to get
there.
So, a lot of it is about communication, coordination,
teeing up the decisions in a way that they can be made, and
that is why we are placing a lot of emphasis on this Interim
Haiti Reconstruction Commission and the role that Prime
Minister Bellerive and President Clinton will have in
overseeing that effort.
Mr. Mack. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, if I could
just follow up on the shelter issue.
What else is needed to move this along? I mean, it sounds
like it is an extraordinary effort to provide shelter for so
many people who have lost their homes, and you talked about how
there needs to be a stage, steps done so you will go from tents
to a structure, a structure that can then later be modified
into a permanent home or shelter for people. Can you talk a
little bit about how that process is going and with a little
more detail?
Mr. Shah. Sure. I think that is an important question and
this is an important issue. We think there are about 1.5
million people that were displaced, so that is somewhere
between 300,000 and 400,000 units of shelter that would be
required. Estimates on how to provide those 400,000 units have
varied a great deal. I think with recent data from the
assessments of peoples' homes and structures we are finding
that we think about half, maybe more, could go back into their
homes if those homes were rehabilitated and reconstructed in a
way that gets it to a higher level of standard and safety.
I mentioned that we are working with local construction
firms to do that. We still need to complete the habitability
assessments and then accelerate the process of the
reconstruction, but that is an important process and it is a
process where usually donors and partners will help rebuild the
structure itself, and then the family will come in and actually
finish the project. They will do the painting, they will do the
cleaning up, so they are vested in their home again.
As we are doing it, we are also looking at are there ways
we can build back up the structures, not just to a higher level
of earthquake standard, but also put in latrines, put in gutter
system for rainwater harvesting so that they have basic water
and sanitation in the home, and do that at a unit cost that
allows for scale across several hundred thousand units. So that
is a big part of the strategy to get people back.
The second part of the strategy is to build 135,000
transitional structures. They are called transitional
structures, but the frame of it is a proper housing frame
with--you know, these are two by fours, metal brackets that
construct them, and then they start with a tarp that is
hurricane-resistant and weather-resistant tarp that conforms to
international standards, but they can then always build on that
base and build the proper home structure. So that is about
135,000, and that is the other part of the strategy.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Mack. Mr. Sires.
Mr. Sires. Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this
hearing. Dr. Shah, thank you for being here.
Dr. Shah, in my district in New Jersey we have a large
Dominican population, and a few years ago there was the Jiminy
floods, I don't know if you remember, in the Dominican
Republic, and we were engaged in bringing supplies and so
forth. I have to tell you this Jiminy flood is no way near as
tragic a catastrophe as the earthquake, and when we got to the
Dominican Republic the biggest problem that I saw was
coordination, coordination between all the people that wanted
to help, the international committee making sure that the
international committee delivered on what they committed, and
it seemed that everyone wanted to do housing in that section.
I just want to know who determines the priorities when the
international committee wants to do housing but who tells them,
look, we already have France doing house, we already are doing
housing, we need you to do this, we need you to do that because
that seemed to be the biggest problem, and getting and making
sure that all the items that we collected and the monies that
we collected got to the people?
We started out as a housing group. We wound up putting the
money into a school. We wound up bringing the supplies down, we
were fortunate that the government of Ipolito, you know, gave
us trucks and everything else to make sure, and we dealt with
the church to make sure that the people received the supplies.
How do we make sure that the people get it? There is a
church involved. I know that the NGOs are involved. But
coordinating this is a very difficult job. You have a very
difficult job on your hands because this catastrophe was not
nearly as large as the one in Haiti, and I will tell you it was
an eye-opener for me. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Mr. Shah. I can, sir, and I appreciate your raising the
question in that context. It is absolutely a challenge of
coordination, and I would say this requires two or three things
that I think are happening, and we have to continue to stay
focused on it.
First, the largest donors and the largest NGOs and the
largest international partners have to be committed to a
coordinated approach against a single strategic plan, and I
think the donors conference in March in New York was important
because the donors did commit to that, and the Government of
Haiti did present a coherent and effective strategic plan.
Second, you need a structure that brings it together and
allows for the adjudication of differences, and during the
relief effort we played a large role in that. Going forward,
this will be the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, and
that commission with its unique leadership with both the Prime
Minister and the former President engaged will, I think, make a
big, big difference, and I will tell you that on visiting the
commission and seeing the capacity they are developing and
seeing their physical plan of putting people from each of the
major donors and each of the major partners physically in one
large collective office space, I think that that will have a
chance to be successful at bringing this together.
But what we need is we need every partner to be as
aggressive about committing themselves to that commission and
to the process of reviewing and dialogue as we are and as other
partners are, and I know that that is an issue with some of the
partners, but we are getting through that process to make sure
that really everyone who is operating at some degree of scale
is willing to abide by the guidance and governance of the IHRC,
and I just couldn't agree with your assessment anymore in terms
of what it takes to be successful in this environment.
And I would add one final thought. You articulated the need
to be flexible very well, and I think for us to all be
successful we can go in with our plan of building a certain
number of transitional structures or anything like that, but we
learn new data all the time. I think it was surprising to our
team to learn that nearly 200,000 homes could be reconstructed
to a higher earthquake standard at a very low cost and that
might be a better way to go long term in terms of housing than
entirely new transitional structures, and we need to be able to
adapt to that kind of data as it comes in. So thank you for
your comment.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Sires. Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you and the
ranking member for convening this very important hearing, and
Dr. Shah, it is great to see you again.
Dr. Shah, the majority of human trafficking cases,
according to the TIP office, are found among the some 225,000
restaveks, child slavery in domestic settings. The restaveks
are not only vulnerable to rape, beatings and other
exploitation, but are often put on the streets, as we know, as
teenagers forced into prostitution. They become
disproportionately the number of street children in Haiti.
The Haitian national police and NGOs have reported an
increase in alleged cases of forced slavery and coerced
prostitution of children and adults since the earthquake. Women
and girls are increasingly vulnerable to the IDP's self-
appointed security guards who exploit them in exchange for
protection.
So my questions would be: What is being done to protect
these vulnerable women and children, especially in the IDP
camps? Is restavek prevention and protection incorporated into
our relief efforts systematically? Is it across the board among
the NGOs and among the government efforts?
And one of the recommendation is that there be a--that in a
trafficking law, domestic obviously for Haiti, that the
definition of trafficking include child labor because the law
is not current there.
Mr. Shah. Thank you, Congressman. It is good to see you
again and thank you for your consistent commitment to these
issues. We share your commitment.
On the specific issue of IDPs and settlements, you know,
there are a very broad number of settlements in Port-au-Prince
and around Port-au-Prince, and they differ in their character.
Some are smaller settlements in communities were people are
actually not that far from their homes and kind of go back and
forth, and those types of smaller community settlements benefit
from the fact that these are communities that have lived
together, that understand each other, where there are common
standards of both behavior and policing and oversight.
The larger settlements that account for the much greater
percentage of people are where most of these incidents and
challenges, especially with respect to gender-based violence,
has been occurring, and we have been very, very focused on
this, and we know that in these settlements there are a range
of things that can be done that range from lighting, safe and
effective appropriately sized areas for latrines and toilets
and bathroom facilities for women, in particular; some women-
only spaces inside the settlement so people don't have to go
outside; and some degree of patrolling and supervision and
policing.
In the 20 largest camps, we have been working aggressively
to make sure that all of those attributes exist in those camps.
They still do not. The UNDP and other partners are helping us
to identify and put in place lighting to meet all of the
lighting needs of the largest camps. The camps came together in
a very sort of rapid ad hoc way, which has made it hard to
identify the safe spaces for latrines and things like that, but
that is taking place in a more accelerated manner.
And on the policing side the Haitian National Police
together with MINUSTAH have been conducting joint patrols in
most of the larger camps. Those patrols in some cases are quite
adequate and quite effective, and in many cases are not, and so
we are working to help continue to expand their capacity to
take on that mission, and to really to do it together between
MINUSTAH and HNP (the Haitian National Police) so that they
take that on.
But the gender-based violence issue, in particular, is
concerning. The data on the number of incidents is very
unreliable, and we are very focused on that, but thank you for
your attention.
Mr. Smith. No, I appreciate that and that response as well.
Just let me ask you quickly in terms to donor fatigue.
Are pledges adequate and are pledges being matched by
follow-up obligations where the money actually materializes,
and with the approaching hurricane season, which obviously can
be on Haiti in an instant, are the IDP camps sufficiently
fortified against that probability? I don't even think it is
just a possibility that some bad weather could come their way
soon.
Mr. Shah. Well, thank you. On donor fatigue or donor
commitments, we believe that 22 of the 30 donors that made
commitments at the March conference are on path to living up to
those commitments and are doing so at a different pace. I want
to take this opportunity to thank this committee and the
Members of Congress who supported the supplemental because that
allows us to live up to our commitments, and many other
countries are going through similar processes to have the
actual resources.
The resources are flowing and are being spent in country,
but this is also a period of time where there is a lot of
planning and a lot of working with implementing partners to
make sure that we set up a system that allows those resources
to be spent effectively, and sometimes we will make the
tradeoff to have a more gradual spend rate in order to make
sure that we do things the right way. We engage local
businesses, we plan adequately so that the things we do are
sustained over the long run and really help Haiti achieve its
long-term aspirations.
On hurricane preparedness, the United States Government has
been aggressive about, again, working with the military and the
civilian side in terms of prepositioning basic supplies for
100,000 families and in terms of providing support for the
construction of shelters and planning and joint drill
activities in high risk areas. Some of the settlements are in
higher risk areas than others, of course, and so that has to be
matched.
You can never be prepared enough in Haiti for hurricanes,
and so we are going through that effort. Part of what we did
was help clear out the drainage system. We did large-scale
debris removal, removing almost 800,000 tons of debris from the
canals and the drainage system so that in the event of flooding
related to hurricanes or just heavy rains the disease risk
would be mitigated and that there would be more protective
action for people in the settlements. A lot of those
settlements were shored up and we moved more than 7,000 people
from the most vulnerable places to safer sites. So, we have
been working aggressively on that, but you know, it is never
really enough.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you. Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much, Dr. Shah. Good to see you.
Let me commend you for the outstanding work that your agency
have been doing. Of course, we all know that much more needs to
be done, so my congratulating you doesn't necessarily mean that
I am satisfied with what is going on, but I think that you have
really hit the--many of us have to recall that I guess you were
sworn in for a day or two when the earthquake hit, and so we
realize that there is certainly no period of adjustment.
Let me just ask some quick questions regarding the health
care. What has been done overall in a short-term strategy to
deal with the health care needs? Is that under the Interim
Haiti Reconstruction Commission or is it done by the U.N. or is
it the Haiti Government that is trying to deal with health care
in general?
Mr. Shah. Well, thank you, sir, and we share your comment
that we are really never satisfied with the work we tend to do
around the world, so that certainly applies here as well.
On health care in particular, you know, we had a very
strong early response with USAID, its partners, its NGOs, and a
number of others providing some form of health service to
nearly 300,000 families over the course of the last 6 months.
In terms of the long-term development of Haiti's health plan,
we are working with the government and with the IHRC to have a
single long-term health reconstruction strategy that will
include expanding the primary care system, it will include
investing in the university hospital and the hospital system in
Port-au-Prince, and it will seek to bring into the fold the
large number of NGOs and others that provide critically needed
and important services, but we believe if we all work together
we could do so in a more coordinated way as we do the
reconstruction.
In order to support that planning, we have actually relaxed
quite a lot of the usual constraints that exist on U.S.
Government resources for the health sector because a lot of our
resources can be programmed against very specific diseases or
very specific activities. We have tried to relax those
constraints and then engage in a single health system planning
effort, so it would be a very different way of working for us.
Mr. Payne. Now in regards to the population, as we all know
one of the basic problems in Haiti was that the main city of
Port-au-Prince was totally overpopulated and as we know the
earthquake dispersed the population to some degree. Will
resources be adequate enough to retain the dispersed persons so
that there is not the repopulation of Port-au-Prince which, of
course, exacerbates the problem and was really part of the
previous problem in the first place?
Mr. Shah. Yes. Well, certainly on behalf of USAID and U.S.
Government resources in certain strategic sectors like energy
and agriculture we are pursuing a very decentralized approach
to supporting, in agriculture, for example, productive
watersheds that are, of course, outside of Port-au-Prince, but
also in the north and along the northwest. So there are
specific investments we are making to make sure that our
resources are invested in a way that supports Haiti's plan to
have more decentralized economic opportunity.
But I don't think that in and of itself will be enough, to
answer your question. Ultimately we have to attract private
investment into those decentralized areas or economic
development zones, and I know the Haitian Government and many
others are working with private sector companies in the United
States and elsewhere to try to attract real private investment
to sites outside of Port-au-Prince to create jobs and to create
economic activity. If that happens, I think that is probably
the key. If that happens, we are prepared to use our funding to
provide service support to those populations in a decentralized
way.
Mr. Payne. Is there any way to utilize the food security
program that State Department is implementing actually through
USAID worldwide, particularly in Africa, and some of those
principles to be used in Haiti?
I think if we look at possible economic growth, it seems to
me that agriculture is a natural, and that could also combine
with the population dispersement of trying to keep them in the
less developed areas.
Mr. Shah. Yes, sir, that is a great suggestion. We in fact
are--Haiti is one of the Feed the Future--Feed the Future is
our term for that program. Haiti is one of the first four Feed
the Future countries. That means that we have sent special
planning teams. We are working with the ministry in a different
way to look at the whole agriculture sector, tie it together
with its nutrition and health programs, and to invest in a
productive agricultural approach in Haiti that could really be
the backbone of distributed economic opportunities.
So, that is exactly what we are doing in the agricultural
sector, and it is important to note that that was actually
underway prior to the earthquake. In fact, last August when I
was at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the Feed
the Future effort I went to Haiti to work on planning and
preparing for that program, so Haiti has maintained, in fact
redoubled its commitment to that approach, and the United
States as a partner has also done the same.
Mr. Payne. Thank you.
Mr. Engel. Well, thank you, Mr. Payne. Ms. Lee.
Ms. Lee. Well, thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for this hearing and for your leadership on these
issues that are so important to Haiti, the Haitian people and
to our own country, and Dr. Shah, I want to thank you again. I
guess you have been here three times this week and I think that
is a testament really to your commitment to your work, to
Haiti. Given our short attention spans in our own country, we
know that the focus is easily diverted once an issue is taken
off of the front page, so I just want to thank you for your
sustained commitment and your staff's.
I want to follow up on the issue as it relates to food and
agriculture, but primarily U.S. food policy. Several times, and
I know President Preval has urged our administration and other
donors to make room for food purchases directly from local
producers so that Haitian can really help themselves in the
recovery effort, and of course the implication is that U.S.
food policy, because of our--you know, the fact that it relies,
and Haiti relies on imports of U.S. commodities, that this
policy may be actually undermining the effort of local farmers
and local entrepreneurs. So I would like to find out if in fact
we are trying to find ways to help make sure that food can be
purchased directly from local farmers and local entrepreneurs
and lines of credit are there and available for that.
Secondly, let me ask you about the direct budgetary support
for the Government of Haiti. They do have a democratically-
elected government. I know there are a lot of issues around
budgetary support, and I am wondering what your thoughts are as
it relates to Haiti, and are we moving at all in that
direction?
Next, I would just like to, and I visited Haiti not too
long ago, and I had a chance to talk with Sean Penn, and he is
doing remarkable work there, and there were many issues we
discussed, and I wondered if you all are in touch with Sean. He
has a lot of ideas. He has been on the ground. I mean, he has a
deep commitment to the recovery of Haiti. We talked a lot about
what happens when the hurricanes come. And I am not sure, thank
goodness, you know, so far so good. But have we been able to
move everyone into higher ground or into stronger kind of
housing, tents or wherever?
And then finally, you know, my bill, the Next Steps for
Haiti Act, we have to be able to begin to support the Haitian-
American community, and Haitians in the diaspora in terms of
going back to help in the development and in the reconstruction
effort of Haiti, and I am wondering your thoughts on that. We
are beginning to move in that direction but I want to make sure
that we have a fully funded and supported effort within USAID
to help promote Haiti's reconstruction efforts with the skills
and the experience of the Haitian-American community?
Mr. Shah. Thank you. Well, thank you for your really
tireless commitment to this issue and to continue to help us be
successful with it. I will just address these in turn as
effectively as possible.
On food and agriculture and local purchases, you know, the
very first purchase of food was 6,00 metric tons of rice that
we did purchase locally for expressly that purpose, and through
the relief effort we tracked the prices of approximately 22
different commodities to look at our market effects. As we go
forward with Feed the Future plan of which I just spoke, we
will be looking actively at how can we support local purchase
of food and food aid programs, and how can we study the impact
of our own food assistance efforts to apply those efforts in a
way that minimizes any market distortion it would create.
Agriculture is going to be the backbone of Haiti's economy for
most participants, and we need to make sure we get that right.
On budget support, the two big issues for us are compliance
and recourse, and if we can work through and develop mechanisms
that will allow for compliance and recourse we can provide more
budget support. We are starting to do it by providing $30
million to the World Bank Trust Fund which will be tied to
budget support, and we will look at a range of other tools as
well so long as they allow for the kind of compliance and
recourse that we need to be able to track resources.
On JPHRO, which is Sean Penn's organization, we have worked
quite closely with him, and in fact when I was last there we
met in Delmas 32 neighborhood, and are trying a pilot effort
with them to say is there a way for us to do the habitability
assessments of home structures and reconstruction of homes that
need to be elevated to a higher standard in coordination with
his group so that we can then transition those people back to
their homes in a coordinated way, and I think if that works
that should become a model for how we might be able to work
with different communities of people in settlements so that we
can kind of in one move improve their basic home living
conditions, and then help them transition back, and we need to
coordinate with the NGOs and partners providing services in the
settlements in order to do that effectively, so I am watching
this very closely, and I appreciate his really tireless
efforts, and he is not--he has really been there from the
beginning and has been working very, very hard to help provide
that service.
And finally, I would perhaps ask if we could ask for your
continued help with connectivity with the Haitian-American
community. It is our aspiration to do work in that way. One of
our first large contracts for clearing rubble and improving the
canal and drainage systems went to a 8(a) firm and to a
Haitian-American-owned business. We are trying to do outreach
in different districts around, making sure that people are
aware, how they can plug into the procurement system, but we
will need your continued support and we would look forward to
your continued support to make sure we make those connections
effectively.
Ms. Lee. Thank you, and just let me thank Mr. Chairman for
your support. We are trying to get H.R. 417, the Next Steps for
Haiti Act done.
Mr. Engel. Well, we should, and we thank you for all of
your efforts. You have certainly been a leader in the Congress
on these issues, and we really do appreciate it.
So, Dr. Shah, I know we promised you and your staff that we
would have you out of here by 10:30. We have made it except for
a couple of minutes. I really just want to thank you, and I
know that we are going to have continuous dialogue. You know,
this hearing is called ``The Crisis in Haiti: Are We Moving
Fast Enough?'' That is what we really want to focus on; we all
know what needs to be done, but we want to make sure that we
are moving fast enough.
Mr. Shah. Thank you.
Mr. Engel. So thank you so much and thank you for the job
you are doing.
Mr. Shah. Thank you.
Mr. Engel. Okay, we will pause for about 1 minute or 2, and
we will give our next panel a chance to come up. We will put
the name plates down, and then we will call them all up.
Before I introduce our panelists on our second panel I am
going to give my opening statement that we pushed back because
of Dr. Shah needing to be with President Obama at 11 o'clock,
so let me do that, and that will give our panelists a chance to
settle down for a few minutes.
So, I want to thank Dr. Shah, as I mentioned before, for
testifying, and he only had a short time with us, but it is
obvious that USAID has an enormous task in dealing with the
crisis in Haiti and is working very hard to address the
problems.
In March of this year I visited Haiti to bear witness to
the horrific loss of life and devastation which befell the
country on January the 12th. I surveyed the damage done to the
land and physical structures of Haiti. It was my intention then
and remains my profound wish that the people of Haiti know that
the United States is committed to help them rebuild their
nation.
As chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, I want to determine what more
America can provide to help Haiti recover from this tragedy and
emerge as a stronger nation. As a representative from the 17th
District of New York, which is my district and we have a large
community of Haitian-Americans. I believe we have the fourth
largest population of Haitian-Americans in my district of any
of the 435 districts in the country, so I have one of the
largest Haitian communities, and we mentioned, as Dr. Shah
mentioned, that it is very important to coordinate everything
we do in Haiti with the Haitian-American community. So I want
to experience firsthand what happened to their homeland and to
help bring back answers to my constituents.
As a human being, I went to see the faces of the victims of
this earthquake and to offer whatever assistance I could
provide them.
Haiti will recover and America will be standing side by
side with our neighbor. For now we are doing everything in our
power to accelerate that recovery. Haitian-American communities
in New York, especially in my district in Spring Valley and
Nyack, and other states have welcomed victims with open arms.
Our schools, such as the East Ramapo School District have taken
in children displaced by this natural disaster and are
educating them, and likewise, Haitian-Americans from all over
the country have shown their sympathy for the people of Haiti
and the generosity of approximately $1 billion given to Haitian
relief.
Let me also say that as our schools take in Haitian
children, we in the Federal Government have to compensate these
schools to make sure that they have adequate funds to educate
these children. The burden should not simply fall on the local
communities where Haitian children are coming in. The Federal
Government has a responsibility to provide for the education,
to help pay for the education, otherwise the education will be
inferior not only for the Haitian children that are coming in,
but for all children in that school district if we don't
provide them with more money.
The devastation in Haiti was all-encompassing. The
destruction was so complete it is really hard to know where to
start. Should the international community focus first on
shelter, health care, education, agriculture, economic
development, or must we address all at the same time? And
regardless of how we prioritize our response in Haiti one
question keeps coming to mind as I think about the crisis in
Haiti, and you will see this in the title of today's here as I
mentioned: Are we moving fast enough?
For more than 6 months have now passed since the earthquake
and so much has yet to be done. We simply must carry out the
relief and reconstruction program as fast as we can, and at
this point I am not sure if we are moving fast enough.
Of the 2 million people who have been displaced in Haiti,
approximately 1.5 million are still in camps. As of earlier
this month only 5,000 transitional shelters had been built in
Haiti. USAID's Haiti Task Team Coordinator Paul Weisenfeld said
on the 6-month anniversary of the earthquake that the
international community has promised to build 125,000 shelters
for about 600,000 people by July 2011. But that will leave up
to 1 million people without homes, and there are concerns that
the Haitian Government has not resolved land titling issues so
there aren't yet enough locations to resettle the large numbers
of displaced people.
Given this, again I ask are we moving fast enough? I want
our panelists to please keep that question in mind when they
give their testimony. Are we moving fast enough in providing
shelter to displaced people in Haiti, and is the Haitian
Government moving fast enough to work out land title issues so
that the land can be set aside for additional shelter?
I have often heard that one of the greatest obstacles to
rebuilding Haiti is that there is so much rubble from the
earthquake which needs to be removed so it is hard to get new
construction going until this rubble is removed. I saw this
with my own eyes when I visited in March. In fact, there is an
estimated 25 million cubic meters of rubble to remove, but
almost no place to put it but into the sea. As a point of
comparison, the tragic destruction of the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001, created 560,000 cubic meters of rubble.
Some have said it will take 2 years to remove the rubble, and
estimates range up to 10 years. Once again, are we moving fast
enough to deal with the rubble removal problem?
And since the earthquake various multilateral institutions
of 48 countries and the coalition of NGOs, non-governmental
organizations, pledged approximately $10 billion toward the
long-term construction efforts in Haiti. However, according to
a recent article in the New York Times by former President Bill
Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive, co-
chairs of the Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission, only 10
percent--this is the quote--``of the 5.3 billion pledged by
governments at a U.N. conference in March has been disbursed to
the Haitian Government without reliable schedules for
disbursement.'' And that is from the Interim Haiti
Reconstruction Commission.
Clinton and Bellerive say, ``The Commission is unable to
plan, finance projects or respond quickly to immediate needs.''
It is hard to understand with the crisis as large as that faced
in Haiti that the money is not flowing faster. So I ask again,
are we moving fast enough in collecting and disbursing the
pledged money for Haitian relief?
With respect to the IHRC, this critical body is only
supposed to exist for 18 months to support the Haitian
ministries and provide grants for rebuilding projects, but now
more than 6 months after the earthquake it is still not yet
fully staffed, as I mentioned to Dr. Shah. Indeed it is
possible that the IHRC still requires another month or 2 to get
its act in gear. With the enormity of the task ahead and the
key commission not fully up and running, again are we moving
fast enough in Haiti?
Finally, we must not think that because the problem to be
fixed is in Haiti the answers are all to be found there. Here
in Congress we face long delays on passage of a supplemental
appropriations bill which contains $2.9 billion in support to
support relief efforts in Haiti. We should have moved faster,
but I am glad that we have finally sent the bill to the
President for his signature.
Regardless, I think I have conveyed my concern in looking
forward to this panel and today's witnesses so we can address
the question are we moving fast enough in Haiti.
Mr. Mack has said that he doesn't have a long lengthy
statement. He just wants to make a few comments, and I am sure
he concurs with the statement that I just made, so I turn it
over to Mr. Mack.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Engel follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. You just washed some
work on the fly because I told him I wasn't going to say
anything and he adjusted quickly. But I do want to associate
myself with your opening statement and in the interest of time
I will not have an opening statement other than to thank you
all for being here, and this is really an opportunity, I think,
for you, for us to have a discussion on what we can do to
improve recognizing that there has been a lot done, there is a
lot to be proud of, but there are things that also need to be
done to make it better. We are only one hurricane, one
earthquake, one other disaster away from a huge setback and we
need to make sure that we have plans in place, people in place,
structures in place that can ensure that the people of Haiti
have a chance to a better future.
So that with that, Mr. Chairman, thank you for putting this
hearing together today.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Mack follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Mack. Ms. Lee, do you have an
opening statement?
Ms. Lee. Just very quickly. Again, thank you, Mr. Chairman,
and thank all of you for coming, and thank you for staying the
course.
I think out of this crises we do have some opportunities if
we can just get past the crisis. It is, again, 6 months. The
cameras are gone, but it is those of you who are really staying
the course, and I just want to thank all of you for taking the
time to come here so that we can stay the course, and I
especially want to welcome Mr. Jimmy Jean-Louis. Thank you for
being here, and thank you for your work. Many of you continue
to work with the Congressional Black Caucus which has been for
so many years in support of Haiti and the Haitian people. So
just welcome, look forward to your testimony, and thank you
again, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Ms. Lee. We have been joined by my
fellow New Yorker, Mr. Meeks. I would like to give him the
opportunity for an opening statement.
Mr. Meeks. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I, too, want to
join my colleagues in thanking you for staying the course for
long after the cameras were gone, that we would have a lot of
work to be done. I have had the opportunity to visit Haiti in
the interim and there is no question that there is a lot of
work to be done. What concerns me is that we have a balance
because we have short-term work to be done, and we can't forget
that, and we have long-term work to be done, and we can't
forget that.
There seems to be at times we get out of balance. You know,
whether we get the money is not flowing, as the chairman has
indicated, whether it is flowing quick enough or not, but even
the distribution of aid. You know, at one point we said that--I
know in another committee I sit on, you know, when I sit on the
International Monetary Policy and Trade, we had a couple of
hearings there. Mr. Fairbanks, you were one of the witnesses
there where we talked about private enterprise and how we have
got to get it up and going, and moving.
And at one point it seemed as though we had a lot of food
that was coming in, and we heard individuals saying that, well,
that is not helping the small business person because they are
not able to sell anything, so therefore they are going out of
business, and that is not going to help the long term. Now I
hear, you know, that there is not enough food coming so people
are now starving again and looking to going back to eating mud
pies and things of that nature because they don't have any
money to cater to some of the small businesses.
How do we get that balance is what I am--you know, we have
got to focus. One of the reasons why I had submitted a bill
talking about a Marshall Plan was trying to think we could get
expertise in each area that are talking and coordinate with one
another so that we could be moving and organized and talking to
one another so that we can get a balance so that we can move
forward and try to take care of all segments.
There had been some hope at one point that we would be able
to create new towns outside of Port-au-Prince that would create
jobs and opportunities for individuals, to prevent the
overcrowding as we try to get the rubble out of Port-au-Prince,
but it seems to be very little, if any, movement in that
direction. How do we get that to happen? Where is the
coordination between the former President and the current
government and some of the foreign government?
You know, I get frustrated at times, to be quite honest
with you, and that is why I would love, and I thank you for
being here so that we can listen and learn and understand what
is going on in that regard.
So I will stop there and just say I, like the chairman, I
have a number of Haitians that live in the district, it is
either the second or third largest in the country, and they
are--you know, so much resources, so many great opportunities
in Haiti.
Lastly, let me just say this because I forgot to give it
out and this is, I think, Mr. Fairbanks is going to testify to
that, what is this marriage between Haiti and the Dominican
Republic? We had a meeting not too long ago, many of us in the
Congressional Black Caucus with the President of the Dominican
Republic who talked about his willingness in looking to work
collectively with the Government of Haiti to make sure that
they can employ people and train people, but I would like to
hear more about that marriage and how do we get this done.
So, Mr. Chair, I stop there and thank you for having this
hearing today.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Meeks, and let me just say that
you mentioned the President of the Dominican Republic. He is
really very enlightened because he is really a New Yorker like
you and me, you know, having been raised in New York and
growing up in New York.
I am really now pleased to introduce our distinguished
private witnesses for this second panel, and we do have a
distinguished panel of witnesses. Jimmy Jean-Louis is an actor,
best known for his role as the Haitian in the NBC series
``Heroes.'' This was an appropriate role since Jimmy is
actually Haitian and was born in Port-au-Prince. Today he is
Goodwill Ambassador for the Pan American Development
Foundation. Welcome.
Samuel Worthington is president and chief executive officer
of InterAction. Welcome to the panel. Jonathan Reckford is
chief executive officer for Habitat for Humanity International.
Welcome.
Dr. Barth Green is chairman and co-founder of the
University of Miami Global Institute for Community Health and
Development, and is president and co-founder of Project
Medishare, but most importantly he is a personal friend of
mine, and I look forward to hearing his testimony. You know, if
you go to south Florida, and my parents lived in south Florida
for 30 years so I am familiar, all you have to do is mention
the name Barth Green and everybody knows him. So if he ever
gets involved in politics, you know the other representatives
from south Florida have to really kind of worry, so welcome.
Joia Jefferson Nuri is chief of staff of TransAfrica Forum.
Welcome. Michael Fairbanks is an author and founder and
director of the SEVEN Fund. Mr. Meeks has already mentioned
that he has testified on a lot of these important matters
before. Welcome. And Nicole Balliette is deputy director for
Haiti Emergency Earthquake Response for Catholic Relief
Services. Let me say this panel is so distinguished that every
time we wanted to kind of keep it small, I would get a phone
call--so and so would like to be added to the panel--and
everyone was so good I could just not say no.
So let me just say to the panelists, you have 5 minutes to
summarize your testimony. You don't have to read it. You could
submit it for the record and it will be in the official record,
and just summarize it. I am going to keep everybody to the 5
minutes, and I am going to be a little heavy with the gavel
because that way it will give us a chance to ask you questions
where I am sure you can give us better answers than opening
statements.
So thank you all very much for being here, and I call on
Jimmy Jean-Louis.
STATEMENT OF MR. JIMMY JEAN-LOUIS, ACTOR, GOODWILL AMBASSADOR,
PAN AMERICAN DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION
Mr. Jean-Louis. Good morning. Is this working?
Mr. Engel. Yes. You might want to push it a little closer
to you, and then we can--no, it doesn't move?
Mr. Jean-Louis. Hello.
Mr. Engel. That is better. You always know an actor can
kind of--you know, I grew up in a household, Jimmy, with a
mother who is an actress, and growing up in New York my mother
always did these bit parts on broadway, off broadway I should
say, and bit parts in movies and she always told me you need to
project from your diaphragm, she used to say to me--so project
from your diaphragm.
Mr. Jean-Louis. You are giving away my tricks. [Laughter.]
It is not good.
Well, on behalf of the Pan American Development Foundation
I thank you, Mr. Engel and the other distinguished members of
this subcommittee for the opportunity to testify here, Mr.
Meeks, Mr. Mack, Mrs. Lee.
Today I am appearing before this committee as the Pan
American Development Foundation's Goodwill Ambassador, and as
the president of the nonprofit organization Hollywood United
for Haiti. Also extremely important, I am here as a Haitian
that had a chance to go to Haiti just days after the
earthquake, and the smell of the burning flesh, the cries of
the survivors, and the desperation of the people in the capital
will stay with me for life. It took me about 5 days to dig the
body of one of my dear friend who is 28, or was 28 years old.
It took me 5 days to get him out of the rubble of my own house,
just to find a piece of arm, nothing else.
I want to say thank you to the people of the United States
for coming to Haiti's assistance after the deadly earthquake.
Haitians will remember the generous support, acts of kindness
and prayer on their behalf.
The crisis Haiti, are we moving fast enough? No, if I have
to answer real quickly. Too many Haitians continue to live in
despicable conditions with little hope of moving into recovery
phase in the foreseeable future. I mean, obviously this is not
a criticism to any particular person, government or non-
governmental organization. Some of the things worked.
What worked? Although the list of people, project, and
activities is very long, the following are just a few examples
of what I think worked. President Obama's immediate pledge of
U.S. assistance proved critical to opening a life line to
Haiti. The media did a great job the first couple of weeks. The
NGOs played a huge role in saving the day. If it were not for
their dedication, however the number of Haitians would have
died, suffered needlessly, would have been far greater.
So the programs worked well such as the Cash for Work.
Haitians want to work. They don't want handouts. Tens of
thousands of Haitians have found temporary employment cleaning
streets, clearing drainage canals and removing rubble. These
Cash for Work programs are also a major step in reviving
devastated neighborhoods.
The human rights, and this one is a very important topic
for me, for years Haiti has faced serious problems with
trafficking of persons, forced labor, exploitation of children,
and violence against woman; nonetheless the January 12
earthquake caused these problems to explode. After the quake a
number of highly qualified national and local NGOs stepped in
and helped. Safe areas were established for children. Medical
services were provided. Support to government agencies
increased, and other activities. Settling, monitoring was set
up to limit the number of acts of aggression against women and
children and that was something that was done by the PDF. They
also launched an anti-rape campaign in the displacement camps.
Although very far from sufficient to meet the current
demands, these programs have gone a long way toward addressing
the critical human rights problems.
What did not work? I just would like to mention some of the
problems and we know that the list is pretty long. The camps,
the IDP settlements, more than 1.2 million people are living in
the horrible conditions in temporary displacement camps right
now in Haiti, and some of those camps are in the key areas in
the main city of Port-au-Prince. I am talking about the
airport, Presidential palace, the squares. Those displacement
camps are very dangerous. They are overcrowded, lack sanitation
and are well on their way to coming permanent settlements,
unfortunately.
Security is starting to be a problem because of those camps
as well, and also because of the prisoners that escaped from
the collapsed prison. We have been pretty lucky in the past
couple of months because of the World Cup, that kept a lot of
people quiet. Unfortunately, the World Cup is gone. People have
less patience. The hurricane season is coming up, so I fear
that security might be a big problem in Haiti in the next few
weeks.
The coordination and cooperation, we cooperated in the
beginning but that has slowly faded, I think. We all need to
set a line our institutional objectives and reach out to all
stakeholders, break down barriers, and focus on the outcome for
Haitians.
Now from crisis relief to recovery, there is a lot to do
there. Moving Haiti from crisis relief to recovery is much more
complicated in Haiti than more developed countries. The PADF
believes that the key areas that must be taken in consideration
as we move from relief to recovery, as most of you know as many
as 18,000 government employees died in the quake. Many were
mid-level technical specialists and managers. I think one
relevant donors like USAID should require on-the-ground
implementors to include a component that strengthen the
Government of Haiti.
I am going back to the human rights. The human rights
abuses and violence against woman and children has to pass the
crisis point. They are a direct result of insecurity. The PADF
just did a survey about 3 weeks ago, and in a camp in Santeis.
Out of 4,000 people, 300 girls are pregnant, teenage girls on
the age of 13, 14, up to the age of 18, and we are not speaking
about the ones that are not pregnant, the boys that can't be
pregnant, so we can easily see what kind of problems we could
have in these camps, or are having in these camps.
The reconstruction, you know, I think Haiti could have a
bright future because we have nothing left. You know,
everything have to be rebuilt. We have to start over again. I
think we have a great chance to think, to think green, you
know. Finding sustainable solutions to long-term issues such as
renewable energy, I encourage everybody to go in that direction
because we have the technology to go there. Why not try it in
Haiti and make an example out of Haiti, maybe for the rest of
the world as well?
Mr. Engel. Mr. Jean-Louis, could I ask you to summarize the
rest of it in about 1 minute?
Mr. Jean-Louis. Yeah.
Mr. Engel. And then we will ask you some good questions,
you can give some of the other statements that you had.
Mr. Jean-Louis. The lucky thing is I have 30 seconds left.
Mr. Engel. Okay, excellent.
Mr. Jean-Louis. Well, obviously, the Haitian diaspora also
are key component in the reconstruction and the rebuilding of
the future of Haiti, and I am going to go with some of the
ideas I have heard as well from Congressman Lee. The Next Step
For Haiti Act, I think it is something that we should consider.
There are some other bills as well such as the Haitian
Enterprise Fund by Congresswoman Clark. And as you know the
Small and Micro Enterprises, that is something that works as
well. It worked in many other countries and I think it can work
in Haiti because it creates jobs for the poorest.
So once again thank you very much, Chairman Engel. I would
like to conclude by saying that so many organizations,
governmental and non-governmental have done an Herculean effort
to help Haitians during this unprecedented crisis. Can we do
more? Yes. Yes, we can by focusing on strategic pieces of
problem. We can continue to effect change on the ground.
Eventually we will move from crisis relief to recovery. The
challenge for all of us in this hearing as well as those in the
field is to ensure that we select the right pieces and properly
fund them.
And I would just like to add that PADF would welcome the
opportunity to participate as one of the NGOs on the
reconstruction commission that the doctor just mentioned
earlier on.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Jean-Louis follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Well, thank you very much for excellent
testimony. I let you go over by several minutes because I
wanted to hear your very heartfelt testimony. Obviously coming
from Haiti you have a special relationship and it was very good
to hear your testimony, and we will ask you questions, I am
sure. I would like to ask the other witnesses to try to keep it
within the 5-minute rule.
And I want to also acknowledge we have been joined by
Congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, who is not a member
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but has been a leader
in the Congress in caring about Haiti. It did not take an
earthquake to get Maxine to participate in Haiti. She for many,
many years both in private conversation with me and things that
she has done publicly, like Ms. Lee, I think the two of them
have really been the leaders in the Congress in terms of caring
about Haiti, and working for it, so we welcome Congresswoman
Waters to our panel.
Mr. Worthington.
STATEMENT OF MR. SAMUEL A. WORTHINGTON, PRESIDENT AND CEO,
INTERACTION
Mr. Worthington. Chairman Engel, Ranking Member Mack,
members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify this morning.
InterAction is the largest coalition of U.S. nonprofits
operating overseas. Our members were the primary actors on the
ground as the earthquake hit and right after. We had 82
InterAction members operating in Haiti. Their staffing levels
went from 2,300 when the earthquake hit, unfortunately with
loss of life, to around 8,000 now operating in Haiti.
The key question that you ask is are we moving fast enough.
I just want to stress the how fast people did respond in the
emergency phase, and that the challenge we are facing now in
reconstruction is largely due to the poverty of Haiti, the lack
of capacity of the Haitian Government, but also the limited
capacity of the international community to effectively respond
to an urban disaster of this scale.
I think one analogy I have, all of us have dealt with
Washington, DC, traffic gridlock. Try getting across Port-au-
Prince if you had 1,000 trucks descend on Port-au-Prince right
now would just make that 2-hour transit to become 3 hours, so
it is an awfully tough environment to operate.
Really to stress at first the resilience and the
entrepreneurship and the capacity of the Haitian people is
tremendous. To start with the issue of coordination, as Dr.
Shah mentioned--USAID funded a coordination office for the NGO
community that InterAction led. This coordination office was an
important effort. Just to give you a sense, a 21st century
disaster by definition results in church groups from Europe and
America coming down to try to help. But we do have a situation
where the 15 largest organizations, in essence, these private
organizations are, these nonprofits are 90-plus percent of the
resources and that ability of that smaller group and other
professional groups to coordinate is actually quite
significant.
I would also make a distinction of the Haitian civil
society has often, a comment that you made of so many NGOs per
capita and so forth, you mentioned one per 1,500. If you look
at the number of nonprofits per capita in the United States
there is one for 260 Americans, so I think this base of
volunteer organizations is a fundamental element of democracy
in a society.
It is crucial, however, that the international groups that
come in are accountable. We have launched, thanks to funding
from Federal Express and a partnership with the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, a map that maps the major NGO activities, not just in
Port-au-Prince, but across Haiti. This mapping effort continues
to be under development as to where resources will be spent and
so forth.
To date, $1.2 billion has been raised by nonprofits in the
U.S. Of this amount, $978 million was for InterAction members,
$467 million was allocated for relief activities, of that
amount $323 million has already been spent, and $511 million
was set aside for reconstruction. Our challenge in spending is
actually a concern that the magnitude of the relief effort will
pull resources out of reconstruction in terms of private
resources. I am not talking here, of course, about the
significant partnership we have with the U.S. Government
resources.
In terms of the way going forward, we all know that we are
going to be confronted with ongoing humanitarian need while
doing reconstruction. Our priority in the reconstruction phase
will be resettlement, as mentioned by others, but it is
important that this new commission on resettlement set up by
President Preval will bring community-based support and a
resettlement strategy. We do also have the challenge that in
terms of sanitation and health, in many ways water and
sanitation is better off in the camps now than where people
might be moved, and there is this critical ongoing challenge of
feeding people.
One of the areas that is critical for the reconstruction of
Haiti is the relationship between the Haitian Government and
Haitian civil society, and at this point in time there is
limited outreach from the Haitian Government to Haitian civil
society, and it is crucial that this broad capacity of Haitian
people be engaged.
All the members of InterAction and other major NGOs are
committed to working with the Interim Commission--to second
staff to it, to help build the government capacity. To some
extent we have seen limited outreach to the NGO community. We
had the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister and
President Clinton last week on this.
To conclude, are we moving fast enough? The answer, of
course, is a nuanced one. There is a challenge and a disaster
side to point fingers at who can move faster or not. The
reality is we have a disaster that has overwhelmed the
international system's ability to respond. I participated in an
evaluation for President Clinton of the tsunami response. This
one, our coordination was far better here, but it has a long
way to go, and I think the real challenge here is to maintain a
focus on Haiti.
And I would like to suggest, please, if we could have some
form of 1-year event because there will still be people in
camps, still challenges going, and if we could have major
donors refocus on Haiti. The American people were tremendously
generous and the nonprofits, commonly known as NGOs, continue
to do what they can to make a difference on the ground.
I would like to thank the chairman and the subcommittee for
the opportunity to testify. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Worthington follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Worthington. Mr. Reckford.
STATEMENT OF MR. JONATHAN T.M. RECKFORD, CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER , HABITAT FOR HUMANITY INTERNATIONAL
Mr. Reckford. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman.
Member of the committee and friends, on behalf of Habitat
for Humanity I appreciate this opportunity to share with you an
update on the shelter needs and recovery efforts in Haiti 6
months after the devastating earthquake. Before I begin, I want
to acknowledge my fellow panelists and thank you all for what
you are doing in support of the people of Haiti. I also want to
recognize the hard work and dedication of each of our staff
member and all those who are working so hard in Haiti right
now. I am honored to be with you today.
Habitat for Humanity is an ecumenical christian ministry
that welcomes to its mission all people dedicated to the cause
of eliminating poverty housing. Since its founding in 1976,
Habitat has built more than 350,000 home worldwide, providing
simple, decent and affordable shelter for more than 1.75
million people.
Shelter is one of the most basic and essential human needs.
It is critical to good health, stable employment, and effective
education. Failure to prioritize the need for adequate and
affordable housing will not only deny hundreds of thousands of
Haitian a safe environment in which to live, but it will
diminish the returns of other humanitarian investments and
ultimately delay real and lasting recovery.
As part of our three-fold response to serve 50,000 families
affected by the earthquake, Habitat has assembled more than
21,000 emergency shelter kits, conducted more than 2,000
structural damage assessments, and is building up to 150
additional transitional shelters each week. To date, Habitat
has built nearly 400 shelters and expects to provide more than
31,000 transitional shelters, significant repairs in core
houses over the next 5 years. We are doing this in partnership
and collaboration with a number of organizations such as the
Red Cross, as well as working closely with local and national
government officials.
These housing efforts stimulate local economies through
jobs creation, investment, commerce, and skills training. It is
crucial to build houses near locations where Haitians want to
work and where they will have access to resources and knowledge
that will allow for growth and expansion.
While the arrival of hurricane season reminds us of Haitian
peoples' desperate and immediate needs, it is imperative that
Haiti and all of its international partners fully commit
ourselves to build back better. The quality of the shelter
solutions provided must be carefully balanced against the
expected speed of their delivery. An effective house
reconstruction plan that will enable families to be safe and
secure once again must address factors such as the availability
of land and improved security of tenure, land use and
environmental issues, the improved delivery of basic services,
including water, sanitation and transport, national economic
development and job creation opportunities, disaster-risk
reduction measures, the special problems and needs of renters,
and particularly the expressed preferences of those who have
lost their homes.
Policymakers and programs should also focus on helping
families return to homes that are structurally sound, and
assist families in fixing homes that can be repaired. In
addition, efforts must be made to help families re-integrate
into communities near their friends, family members, and
livelihoods.
The land tenure issues that Haitians face are complex.
Creating more permanent shelter solutions is difficult when one
is unable to ascertain who owns the land or how has the rights
to shelter when it is finished. Putting Haitians back into
homes without secure tenure will subject them to the same
arbitrary evictions and above market rents that they too often
endured before the earthquake, and will also discourage
investment in housing and the economy as a whole.
This disaster also underscore the importance of building
codes designed to address the risks inherent in a particular
location. As Chairman Engel noted, comparing the devastation
seen in Haiti to levels of damage seen in the subsequent
Chilean earthquake, which was of a far greater magnitude,
demonstrates clearly the number of lives that are saved when
adequate building codes are enforced.
As Congress and the administration work to support shelter
recovery efforts in Haiti, Habitat for Humanity urges the U.S.
Government to take the following actions: First, increase
resources for rubble removal and for shelter reconstruction;
increase resources for community-based solutions to land tenure
issues with a special focus on renters since they represent a
majority of the Haitian IDPs; focus resources on housing repair
programs; work with the Government of Haiti and its citizenry
to create a comprehensive urban development strategy and
development plan; and make decisions with the knowledge that
decentralization and resettlement are separate issues, and that
housing reconstruction investments will only be effective in
areas where jobs exist.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and esteemed members of the
committee, this hearing is an important step in meeting the
critical shelter needs of Haitians. This is clear evidence of
your recognition of the vital role that shelter will play in
the successful rebuilding of Haiti, and I appreciate your
invitation to participate. Habitat for Humanity looks forward
to continuing its work with all of you and with the people of
Haiti to help develop safe and affordable housing
opportunities. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Reckford follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Reckford. Dr. Green.
STATEMENT OF BARTH A. GREEN, M.D., F.A.C.S., CHAIRMAN AND CO-
FOUNDER , UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI GLOBAL INSTITUTE FOR COMMUNITY
HEALTH AND DEVELOPMENT, PRESIDENT AND CO-FOUNDER OF PROJECT
MEDISHARE
Dr. Green. Good morning, Chairman Engel, Ranking Member
Mack, and members of the subcommittee.
I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to
discuss current health conditions in Haiti and outline the
challenges and opportunities moving forward. My testimony is
from the perspective of a volunteer physician who worked in
Haiti the last 20 years and is co-founder of Project Medishare
and the University of Miami Global Institute.
Within 24 hours of the earthquake I was on the ground in
Port-au-Prince working with our Project Medishare team and
created a major trauma and critical care field hospital at the
airport. We treated over 30,000 patients and acted as the
staging point for U.S. military evacuations to the U.S. Navy
Ship Comfort and hospital in the U.S. and abroad.
In June, we moved to an existing community hospital which
continues today to serve as Haiti's only trauma and critical
care hospital.
In the health care sector the situation in Haiti was dire
before the earthquake. That is why 1/4-million people died.
Today, it is even worse. Preventable causes of death in Haiti
range from heart attacks, stroke, and maternal emergencies to
lack of blood supply, vaccinations, and a bureaucratic log jam
in customs.
Haiti's plan for reconstruction is focused on
decentralization and industrialization. This plan cannot
succeed if there is insufficient infrastructure in rural areas
to attract people, including investors, away from Port-au-
Prince. This also means there needs to be an adequate health
care safety net in these areas. Health care delivery and
training need to be integrated nationwide, which is
particularly important as Haiti's new health needs have changed
dramatically.
Prior to the earthquake there were five medical schools and
one nursing school. Today, there is one medical school, and
Haiti has all but lost all of its health care education
infrastructure. Committees formed lead by diaspora, mainly from
the United States and Canada, were partnering with the Ministry
of Health to rebuild theses institutions, but since the Haitian
medical system is mainly based on a French curriculum the
participation of the Haitian diaspora is especially valuable.
Equally, if not more important in the training of the
physicians, will be advance education of nurses and allied
health professionals. Haiti's anemic public health system has
long depended too heavily on NGOs, often with a different
agenda than the government. Facilities outside the capital were
chronically understaffed, poorly equipped and insufficiently
funded. Following the earthquake hundreds of thousands of
patients fled Port-au-Prince and sought refuge in the
traditional home communities, placing additional stress on the
already compromised health care system.
Haiti's health care system is truly on the ropes. It is
important to ask ourselves whether we are attempting to solve
Haiti's problems in the same way that it failed in the past, or
whether now is the time for new approaches to help Haiti help
itself. These strategies must include procurement reform,
employment generation, capacity building. Priorities should be
given to partners who have past experience, on-the-ground
records of success, integrity and transparency.
Today the picture on the ground in Haiti is both
encouraging and discouraging. Avoiding major famine and
epidemics in the short term is a very fragile victory. However,
lack of fundamental shelter, near collapse of economic sector
coupled with the lack of flow of donor dollars bodes for a very
poor prognosis.
Bureaucratic hold ups and a lack of focus on the needs of
Haiti's masses do not allow for a cure which must be rapid,
skillful and aggressively implemented.
In spite of U.S. citizens' donations of unprecedented
amount of money to help Haiti, there is little evidence that
most of these dollars have reached Haitian shores or are
sticking on the ground. It is also extremely difficult for any
organization that is not a traditional foreign assistant
contractor or grantee to get inside the doors of those making
funding decisions within the U.S. Government.
So the answer, Mr. Chairman, is no, we are not moving fast
enough to help Haiti. Six months after the earthquake millions
of Haitians are still living in inhumane conditions with few
services available and virtually no prospect of employment or
opportunity. The U.S. must change the way we do business in
Haiti. Public/private partnerships are essential. Following
traditional passive assistance will only lead to more of the
same.
Thank you for this opportunity to discuss health care
issues facing Haiti's reconstruction. Project Medishare and the
University of Miami's Global Institute remain committed to
rebuild a new and better Haiti. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Green follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Dr. Green. Ms. Nuri.
STATEMENT OF MS. JOIA JEFFERSON NURI, CHIEF OF STAFF,
TRANSAFRICA FORUM
Ms. Nuri. Chairman Engel, Mr. Mack and members of the
committee, I also thank you for this opportunity to testify. I
speak today on behalf of the president of TransAfrica Forum,
Nicole Lee, who could not make it here today.
To answer your question are we moving fast enough, I agree
with Dr. Green. Absolutely not. We are not. It is TransAfrica's
assessment that despite the high level of financial resources
already pledged and available, the efficacy of the relief
effort has been undermined by structural inefficiencies,
bureaucratic inertia and vested interested parties working to
preserve privilege while giving the appearance of change.
This assessment is a result of six field missions to Haiti,
including daily consultation with Haitian grass roots, and
community-based organizations, and interviews with camp
residents. Our assessments are detailed in our 6-month report,
``Haiti Cherie'' which has been submitted for the record. This
oral statement summarizes the findings of this report.
Unprecedented amounts of money have been raised to address
the crisis of Haiti. It is estimated that enough money has been
raised to provide $37,000 to each family displaced by the
quake. International NGOs and governments alike have been quick
to recognize the return to Haiti to the pre-quake status cannot
be the standard and TransAfrica agrees with that.
Unfortunately, it is our estimation that despite extraordinary
efforts the crisis response has replicated flawed models both
on the emergency response side and long-term reconstruction.
The present model of relief and reconstruction has
effectively stopped Haitian civil society from taking
leadership roles in the rebuilding process. Their inclusion in
on-the-ground operations as well as policy discourses,
including congressional hearings such as today, is imperative.
Despite a stated commitment to include Haitian participation,
long embedded prejudices and systems continue to operate.
Relief and reconstruction efforts have also taken place
overwhelmingly in Haiti's crowded capital with few resources
distributed to other regions where the need is just as great.
Post-quake Haiti is being framed as an opportunity for further
international investment in the poverty wage industry.
TransAfrica Forum staff have met with textile factory workers
who returned to work with no worker protection, wages so low
that many have to walk home because they cannot afford their
transportation costs. Left uncorrected, the failures of the
post-crisis period will set a state for a reconstruction period
that will be in crisis. There will be continued national and
international corruption, human rights violations, wasted
resources, and most importantly, the continued suffering and
loss by the people of Haiti.
Today in Haiti, over 6 months after the quake, we have seen
little progress. Many residents of Haiti's 1,300 internally
displaced persons camps are living in the same limited security
and access to basic goods they found the day after the quake.
Conditions in IDP camps remain atrocious. Haitian camp
leadership TransAfrica Forum have met with throughout Port-au-
Prince report resources have been limited since the quake.
Problems faced by the people living in IDP camps consist of the
following: Infrequent food and water distribution; inefficient
washing and sanitation facilities; inadequate security,
particularly for vulnerable populations; minimal jobs and
educational opportunities; inadequate and unsafe temporary and
transitional housings, because the emergency phase of this is
clearly not over.
TransAfrica has been particularly concerned about the
impact on marginalized populations, including women, children,
the disabled, and the elderly. KOFAVIV, a Haitian CSO that
works on issues of gender-based violence has recorded 242 rapes
since the quake, likely just a fraction of the actual total,
with no prosecutions to date.
There are issues of housing and shelter. I am running out
of time but I would like to talk about the upcoming elections.
If I have just a few moments, I would like to say that there is
an opportunity coming up for Haitians to become very, very
involved, and that is the elections that are set for November
28, and those are the Presidential and the parliamentary
elections. They present an occasion for unprecedented civil
participation, and voter turnout. But this requires immediate
action for these elections to be fair and inclusive. Adequate
funding, technical assistance, including the creation of a
national identification card, updated electoral list,
accessible polling places, and extensive voter education are
needed.
The creation of a new unbiased CEP, which is the
Provisional Electoral Council, to oversee this year's election
should be followed by pressure on the Haitian Government to
establish a permanent electoral council as required by their
constitution.
In addition, inclusion of all registered political parties
is the only way fair and representative elections can take
place. International governments and NGOs must commit funds and
manpower to create such an environment for elections which
could give the Haitian Government both authority and faculty to
effectively manage the country's reconstruction.
We also should really dissect decentralization as mentioned
by Dr. Green, and we can get into that when we get to the Q&A,
but these things are not going to be easy, but they are going
to be imperative, and I thank you for the opportunity to
testify.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Nuri follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Ms. Nuri. Mr. Fairbanks.
STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL FAIRBANKS, AUTHOR, FOUNDER AND
DIRECTOR, SEVEN FUND
Mr. Fairbanks. Thank you very much. The recent press
reports indicate that somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of the
pledged funds have been disbursed. I think just on that basis
everyone in the room can agree that we are not moving at the
rate that we can. What is interesting is the reasons why.
The first reason is our planning method, referred to by
many as the waterfall methodology, which means that
requirements cascade toward design, implementation,
verification, and then maintenance phases. The type of people
who are good at that aren't the type of people who deal well in
the environments of ambiguity and underdevelopment that we find
in places like Haiti. So we are actually configured to solve a
problem for a time in which we no longer live, and this is a
very important strategic planning principle.
The second reason is that Americans are very prone to
overresponsiblity and then underresposibility. We are there on
the spot. We make big commitments. We speak with passion. We
believe in our own exceptionalism and our ability to fix these
things. And then 6 months later, when good things are not
happening, we also are prone to point fingers, blame other
people, make excuses, and then withdraw. I think we are still
in the overresponsibility phase, but I think it is just about
over; and I think the situation in Haiti is going to get not
pretty very fast.
Americans are also prone to be sympathetic, rather than
empathetic. Because we feel ourselves in a very powerful
position, we fall into this trap of sympathy where overzealous
donors bring their own experiences to bear on the situation,
and take decision rights away from the people that we are
trying to help. What this means is that our model of
development is based on a massive infusion of financial
capital, and expertise. We go to these conferences and we
reenforce each others' values and we congratulate each other;
and we are filled with esteem and we develop terrific
narratives about our own capacity, which helps us to shape
donor fashion and raise money, and continue on to the next
place.
I think in some ways it is good news that a lot of money
hasn't shown up. If a lot of money showed up, it would already
affect a completely overvalued exchange rate in Haiti, which
prevents indigenous innovation from happening. It would be the
so-called Dutch Disease. Just like they found oil, they found
aid; it would have the same impact on the economy.
When a lot of aid shows up it severs the sovereign
relationship between democratically-elected leaders and the
people. I spent the entire morning yesterday with President
Preval, and I know for a fact he spends more time talking to
aid officials than his own people. I know for a fact that he
spends more time thinking about development than about private
sector innovation.
So what can we do about this? The answer lies across the
border in the Dominican Republic. It is a match made in heaven.
They have unbelievably sophisticated capacity to innovate. They
have 56 specialized zones that are world class. They have
certain tariff relationships which allow them to export into
the United States. But their wages have gone up too fast
recently. It has created too much prosperity for too many
people and it has made them price uncompetitive. Haitian labor
is very desirable and hard working, and their wages are lower
than China.
If the two countries could get by the migrant issue and
some of the negative attributions they make to each other, they
could develop textile, construction, and tourism experiences
that would beat China and the United States. It is a match made
in heaven. The Island of Hispaniola could beat China in the
delivery of massive amounts of textiles and apparel products in
the United States, but nobody is having that discussion, so I
want to give you a few very quick things that we could do in my
last 45 seconds.
The protection of tangible and intangible property; trading
patants; focus on the market access incentives; and fiscal
incentives for tax exemptions of certain investments in certain
parts of the country. Forget about the migrant issue between
the two countries; de-link it from the free trade issue. It has
got to be solved separate from that and by a trusted third
party. Work on the production costs, most importantly, energy
costs in there. Focus on the hidden taxes on the economy that
other people have mentioned here, the time to register a
business, the time to register a mortgage, and focus on
specialized and advanced transportation logistics.
It turns out that the real impediment to Haiti's
development is its lack of self-determination, its fatalism,
its unwillingness to go into the world and compete, and the
lack of a sovereign relationship between a democratically-
elected leadership and its people because it is being
distracted by a discussion for a time in which we no longer
live.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Fairbanks follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Fairbanks. Ms. Balliette.
STATEMENT OF MS. NICOLE S. BALLIETTE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR HAITI
EMERGENCY EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE, CATHOLIC RELIEF SERVICES
Ms. Balliette. Thank you, Chairman Engel and Ranking Member
Mack, for calling this important hearing, and giving Catholic
Relief Services an opportunity to testify.
My name is Nicole Balliette. I am the CRS deputy director
for the Haiti Earthquake Response. At this time I would like to
thank the members of this committee for the passage of the
Haiti Economic Life Program Act, the Haiti Debt Relief and
Earthquake Recovery Act, and for passage of the Haiti
Supplemental. CRS is also appreciative of the other bills in
support of the people of Haiti, and would like to especially
thank perhaps Mr. Engel, Ms. Lee, Ms. Waters, Mr. Fortenberry,
Mr. Meeks, Mr. Conyers for their leadership and support.
I know this committee and the world are concerned about
Haiti and the recovery process. CRS shares those concerns, but
good things are being done, and we believe we can overcome the
immense challenges that we face. But we do want to be clear.
Together we are not moving fast enough. We cannot consider it
fast enough when people are living without shelter, without
security, and without livelihoods.
We have already heard from my colleagues on the panel about
the situation in Haiti prior to the earthquake, as well as the
extent of the devastation with which the people of Haiti are
currently suffering. CRS has been working together with the
people of Haiti for over 55 years, providing immediate relief
as well as long-term development assistance. Some of the
highlights of CRS's response to the earthquake include that
within hours or Haitian and international staff began
responding. Our generous donors, including private individuals
and the U.S. Government, began almost immediately to contribute
what has become an unprecedented amount.
CRS has to date spent over $30 million and together with
our Haitian partners has made major strides in meeting
desperate needs, including providing food, water and
sanitation, shelter materials, health care, and protection
services to hundreds of thousands of people. Although we and
the others have accomplished a lot, I would also like to talk a
bit about the constraints and some of our recommendations.
First, the Government of Haiti must play the leadership
role in the country's recovery, but the success of the process
will depend in large part on the actions of a robust civil
society. We all must encourage and facilitate strong and
effective leadership by Haitians and provide them with the
support that they need.
Second, security in certain parts of Port-au-Prince,
especially in the settlements, is a huge constraint on the
ability of people to function normally as well as on the
ability of actors like CRS to provide services. And if most
vulnerable members of Haitian society are able to participate
in the recovery, they need to be protected from trafficking,
from sexual and gender-based violence, and all other forms of
exploitation and abuse. Only a few years ago improved security
in Haiti was a great success story. Could this not be
replicated now to facilitate the recovery process?
Third, the lack of an overall resettlement strategy
seriously constrains the work of all the actors in Haiti.
Current efforts are ad hoc. They deg. Haitian
Government must develop a holistic resettlement and recovery
strategy that we can all use to guide our efforts. Linked to
this are specific and high priority problem that has been
mentioned here on the panel is the lack of places to install
the transitional shelters. This is an urgent need that requires
the highest possible prioritization, and two of the solutions
have been mentioned--the quicker removal of the debris and the
rubble--and then the securing of land.
The Haiti earthquake response is large-scale and complex,
and having worked myself in places like Angola, Sierra Leone
and Eastern Congo, I do know what complex is. But we cannot let
the complexity prevent us from achieving immediate results
while we also lay the groundwork for long-term development. We
need to strike this balance, and we need to act in solidarity
with the Haitian people to help ensure not only that the right
things are done, but that they are done in the right way.
The solution requires the leadership of the Government of
Haiti acting in partnership with civil society, including key
actors like the church in Haiti, and the support and assistance
of international actors, including the U.S. Government. There
is trauma and devastation in Haiti. There is no doubt. But
there is also hope and I would like to share a story that gives
me some hope.
Within hours of the quake our Haitian staff in Les Cayes in
the southern peninsula they got together. They loaded up trucks
with food and non-food items, and they hit the road. They came
to Port-au-Prince. They were worried about their own families,
their own friends, but they were worried about their colleagues
as well and all the victims of the disaster.
When I was in Haiti recently, I was co-facilitating a
workshop with some partners, and I heard similar stories from
Carry Toss Haiti, from the government of people who did the
same thing throughout the country. This illustrates for me that
when the need is great and the actions to be taken are clear
people will find a way.
The stage of the recovery process that we are in now is
perhaps more confusing. So much needs to be done and there are
so many different ways to do it. But with leadership and
direction to guide our efforts we can find a way. We are
grateful for all of your efforts, and those of other members of
the U.S. Government to do what you can to support the people of
Haiti. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Balliette follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Well, thank you very much, and thank you all for
wonderful testimony. I want to say for me, and I know I speak
for Mr. Mack, we appreciate the hard work that all of you have
done and the help that you have given the people of Haiti, and
helping us to focus on what we should be doing in the Congress.
Dr. Green, let me start with you. You talked about the
medical schools and things that have been destroyed. What about
the hospitals? I am told that there is virtually perhaps one
hospital, or a lot of the hospitals have been destroyed. What
can we do to make sure that there is enough care, that perhaps
the hospitals are rebuilt? What should the Congress be doing to
help ensure that?
Dr. Green. Well, I think there has to be a coordinated
plan, and that really has to be integrated through all the
sectors. You can't isolate health care without housing and
agriculture and micro finance and all the components. There was
a very feeble system that was there before that really was not
effective, and so in Port-au-Prince right now we have moved
into a preexisting community hospital. We have strengthened it,
and we are running as a critical care hospital. It is the only
one in the country.
There is a network of regional community hospitals, most of
which are run by NGOs, and there is also national hospitals.
They are underequipped and understaffed. There needs to be a
national plan for public health and there needs to be a
national plan for critical care and rehabilitation, and what
Project Medishare is doing is creating a public/private
partnership to create a national net work of critical care and
trauma centers in disaster response so this never happens
again.
But it is not going to be Ministry of Health. It is in
partnership with the Ministry under the government's control,
but it is a foundation that will be self-sustaining through a
catastrophic insurance plan, and this is what we need--
sustainable systems, because if you create, if you build
hospitals, how do you sustain them? How do you fund them? And
this is why we are looking to the private sector to partnership
with the public sector to create the income necessary to
support the public mission. I think that is the clue.
Mr. Engel. Do you think that the prioritization has been
wrong? Do you think that the health care needs have been pushed
down in the scale in terms of the international community
response, or do you think that it has been adequate and that it
is moving along fairly well?
Dr. Green. You asked the wrong person. It is really unfair,
because the formulas for countries like ours where the GNP is
say maybe 4 percent health care, but in Haiti there is no
infrastructure. So when they take 4 percent of the
reconstruction money, it is a joke because there is no
hospitals, there is not one hospital in Haiti except our with a
ventilator, with oxygen in the walls, with sterile operating
rooms for $10 million. So it has to be a balance of community
health along with specialized center, and I can tell you in the
central plateau, which is the most isolated part of Haiti, we
serve over 100,000 Haitian citizens in a very isolated area for
less than $10 a year per person, child birth through
geriatrics. We have a model. We have to fund that model in
cooperation with the government, the ministry and the NGOs
working together.
Mr. Engel. Amazing, you do amazing work, and we are all
grateful to you for it. Thank you.
Let me ask Mr. Reckford. Cheryl Mills said at the State
Department on the 6th-month anniversary that the international
community has pledged about 125,000 shelters which would cover
about 6,000 people. Now we know we have the onset of the
hurricane season. It is coming soon. So how quickly can these
temporary shelters be built, and what will happen to the
hundreds of thousands of others who will not be able to move
into a structurally sound shelter?
Mr. Reckford. I think capacity is ramping up quickly. It is
certainly slower than we or anyone else would like. Due to the
core issue, and I think there is starting to be attention on
it, is really the land issue. So what is the system for titling
land, allocating land, and providing for secure tenure for
families so as we put them in?
I think there are going to be two types of shelters,
transitional shelters that could be moved or reused or
recycled, and then our preference where there land issues would
be upgradable transitional shelters that actually can be turned
into permanent housing ideally.
I think the shelters are designed--the ones we are building
are designed to withstand 100-mile-an-hour winds, so they would
help in a Category 1 plus hurricane, and then realistically we
are stockpiling emergency materials in the case of a more
devastating hurricane to be able to support families, but it is
a huge issue and the faster we can get land issues, I think, as
well as the supply chain of materials the faster Habitat and
other groups can ramp up their production.
Mr. Engel. Let me ask anyone on the panel who would care to
answer. Can you describe the bottlenecks to improving shelter
such as land and building materials, supply chain constraints,
and how the U.S. Government is working to address this issue?
How do you envision a robust repair program for existing
damaged homes that will help to accelerate the transition?
Anybody would care to comment based on your experience.
Mr. Worthington. You asked a very tough question, and the
roadblocks are in many places. It goes from getting goods
through customs to other issues. You mentioned the roads
earlier. If you had to make a new road through Port-au-Prince,
you would have to displace people; the ability of the
government to make decisions that then are actually implemented
on the ground is constrained. There are decisions made at the
Presidential level but it is very difficult since there is such
poor infrastructure, I believe to carry out those decisions it
took 7-8 weeks just to identify the first piece of land where
you could move people from some of the camps.
There is a recognition that this needs to change, and in
many ways it reflects the fact, unfortunately, that the key
people in the Ministry of Planning were killed during the
earthquake. Also it is not just the challenge of the government
in doing this. It is the ability of the international community
to help people, as Dr. Shah mentioned, to move back into some
of these houses that are green, and to reconstruct the ones
that are yellow.
There is a significant psychological challenge that the
people of Haiti face. The number of individuals who say, ``I do
not want a concrete roof over my head'' is enormous. So even
though there are good houses, you have people living in tents
outside those houses because they are afraid to move in. One of
the good things about transitional shelters is they are wood
and you do not have that psychological barrier. But to be very
candid, we are talking years here, and it is going to be a slow
process because you have both the psychological, bureaucratic
and capacity issues that stand in the way of making this idea a
solution.
Mr. Engel. I will give Ms. Nuri a chance to answer that,
but I also want to throw out this question: How about the
people there? You know, when I was there in March I was amazed
at how even-tempered the people seemed to be. You did not see
anybody with rage. People seemed to welcome us. We were one of
the first groups to come. I thought, my goodness, there are so
many people out on the street with nothing to do, no house to
return to, no job to go to. You know, you wonder why there
wouldn't be some kind of a riot or whatever. I was just amazed.
Is that the situation now or are people starting to just
get fed up and feel hopeless and starting to feel outraged? Mr.
Jean-Louis, did you want to----
Mr. Jean-Louis. Well, I just got back from Haiti about 2
weeks ago, and I could really start to see a little change in
peoples' attitudes. They started to be a little bit fed up. Not
all of them because for some people it is a good way to escape
or even deeper poverty because they have a space in some of the
tents, which is hard to say, but it is a reality for some of
them. But yes, I am really afraid that we might have more acts
of aggressions coming up as I mentioned earlier because of the
hurricane season that is coming up and also the election that
is coming up in November.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Mr. Worthington, did you want to----
Mr. Worthington. One of the things our community did is we
actually pushed quite hard for the White House to maintain the
U.S. military presence down there longer, and usurping
nonprofits and military. In this case we had tremendous
cooperation with the U.S. military in terms of security, and we
are seeing that security as the situation unfolds. I think Mr.
Jean-Louis has phrased it well. You have a resilient, patient,
very capable people. We had an individual a week after the
earthquake whose sole focus was on Haitian civil society. There
is a pent-up capacity in lots of local Haitian organizations
that is not being tapped, and unfortunately that inability to
have an effective conversation with government from Haitian
civil society does lead to a significant anger.
It is student groups, it is peasant groups, it is
associations of lawyers--this is a society with lots of
associations that got critiqued as the ``NGO community'' of
Haiti. There needs to be a better dialogue with those groups
because, unfortunately, they are an escape valve that could
result in violence in a relatively near future, particularly
around the election.
Mr. Engel. Ms. Nuri.
Ms. Nuri. I wanted to address your first question about
moving forward. We have all sat here on the panel and many of
us have said that the Haitian Government needs to step up and
be able to lead this movement forward through the emergency
phase and reconstruction. But because of a historic mistrust of
the Haitian Government, it has translated to only a pittance of
the money that has been given actually going to the Haitian
Government. The Haitian Government is operating with very
little funds. We have admitted that only 3-5 percent of the
money is given out at all, and that money has been given to
major corporations in this country and around the world and not
to the Haitian Government or any assistance in building their
capacity to take care of this.
That has also translated to a point where the grass root
leadership, the civil society organizations are also on the
ground, also not getting the funds they need to build. So if we
are looking to the government and we are looking for the civil
society organizations in Haiti to step up and lead as the
United States and as people of good conscious, we should also
look at how are they being funded, how are we supporting them
in order for them to step up and lead.
We also have no evidence and history that the Haitian
people are going to be anything different than they already
are. They are very good natured. We have worked with them. Mrs.
Waters can probably testify to this more than me, that the
people of Haiti want to go to work, they want to build their
country, and they want the world community to help them do this
themselves, not us, as Mr. Fairbanks testified to, come in and
do it for them.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Mr. Fairbanks.
Mr. Fairbanks. Thank you. Poverty is not just low
purchasing power. Poverty destroys hopes and aspirations, and
that combined with indigenous belief systems and a history of
disempowerment means there is not a lot of self-determination,
there is not a lot of optimism about the future. What you see
in the streets, in my view, is people who are moving along just
to get along like they always have. They have never had a lot
of optimism about their future, and nothing has really changed.
There is a second factor that can't be avoided here which
was--Dr. Shah mentioned the rate of diarrheal diseases has gone
down because the rate of fresh water has gone up. A lot of food
has gone up. In fact, and this is a little bit of a difficult
thing to say, but a lot of the 1\1/2\ million people who have
been displaced, their lives have improved.
Now, people are going to resent that statement, but to the
point where people from remote villages are sending relatives
into the camps to live because of the access to water,
nutrition and medical care. Part of what you are seeing is that
the emergency response has dramatically improved the lives of
some, not a trivial portion of the population.
When our underresponsibility phase kicks in, because we are
already delivering less food to the people and even less
medical care than a few months ago, that is when we are going
to see a restive population get very angry. That is when we
will begin to point fingers, and that is when things will begin
to deteriorate at a higher rate.
Mr. Engel. I am going to go to Mr. Mack, but Ms. Nuri
quickly raised her hand. I don't know, Dr. Green, did you? I
didn't notice. Okay, yes, I am going to give the two of them a
chance to respond, and then I will call on Mr. Mack.
Ms. Nuri. I think that what Mr. Fairbanks just addressed is
wrong. I think that the people of Haiti--in TransAfrica, we
know from our research that the people are not living better
than they were living before. People are living in camps
because their homes fell down. A lot of people are coming back
into Port-au-Prince because we need to address that issue of
decentralization. Thousands upon thousands of Haitian left
after the earthquake to go to their homes, their heritage
homes, but there was no aid there. There was no water there.
There was no medical care there. So they came back to Port-au-
Prince. They are stuck in Port-au-Prince because there is
nothing--we have not put aid outside. We had no roads. We don't
have medical care. There is no water outside of Port-au-Prince.
And for the statement that Haitians don't want to have a
concrete roof over their heads, there is no proof that those
homes are going to sustain them, and the fact that Haitians
would rather live in camps is offensive. It is not true. It is
not true from any research or any NGOs that we have worked with
on the ground there or even the people we have come to this
country to testify before this Congress.
We have got to figure out how to assist Haitians in
decentralization. Government, economies, jobs, health have to
be outside of the city of Port-au-Prince in order to
effectively talk about rebuilding Haiti or building Haiti to be
a better Haiti.
Mr. Engel. Dr. Green.
Dr. Green. I agree with Ms. Nuri, and I think that the
problem is our Government, our nation means well, sends water.
We send food. But at the end of the day they are worse off
because we do it for all the socio-economic reasons that were
mentioned earlier.
What we need to do, what we talk about teaching the
fishermen to fish, not giving you fish, and if we don't wake up
this time and create jobs and opportunities and schools, and
make people buy their housing with micro finance, let them earn
their housing. In the DR, tens of thousands of houses were
built 10 years ago. They are all trashed because they were
given to people who needed shelter. There has to be a
coordination between all the sectors, health care and
education, and industry, agriculture, micro finance,
sanitation, and that is what we need to do right. We had better
learn because we have never had it right before. I really
believe that.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Dr. Green. Mr. Mack.
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank
again everyone on the panel for your insight, and as I listened
there was some common themes and there was obviously some
points where there was some disagreement, but I think those are
good things, and we might not appreciate some of the
terminology that one uses in trying to make a point, but what I
think I heard is that we need to be careful that we don't
create a permanent camp; that we have to, and I think Mr.
Fairbanks was trying to get to that, that we are not creating a
permanent camp.
I was struck early on by, and I know I am going to butcher
your name so I am sorry, Jean-Louis, and because of your unique
position in the world to hear the heartfelt testimony something
struck me very clear through all of the testimony, starting
with yours, and that is, there is a basic security, human
rights issue that if we do not handle, if we do not get control
of will be a cancer to any reconstruction and any long-term
recovery and growth for Haiti, and I do believe that there is a
role for the United States to play, and so I would ask you, and
don't answer it yet because I want to get through some of these
points, and then I will let--but I am going to ask you, will
the people of Haiti see if the United States more active in
security and some of these human rights, will the people of
Haiti see that as the United States overstepping, or will the
people of Haiti see that as a welcomed offer from the United
States?
The other thing that I heard is that we really need to rely
or bring in--make sure that the Government of Haiti is the key
player in whether it is the basic needs of security, human
rights, to the reconstruction with homes, shelter, food, water,
hospitals, education, or to the long-term planning of how to
help Haiti then become--I should say take advantage of what we
all know to be inherent in all of Haiti, and that is, hard
working people who want to provide for themselves.
So another thing I think the United States could play a
lead role in is coordination, helping set a structure where we
don't necessarily lead it, but to create a structure where all
of the different elements can come together and you get out of
this bureaucracy mud. It just stops everything, and I hope to
have the opportunity to talk with the chairman, maybe there is
a way we can work together to create this kind of framework to
allow all this to happen.
So, again, I break this down into the basic necessities of
human rights and security has to be one of the first things
that we tackle. The reconstruction, and I will say this, that I
think if people who have lived through hurricanes or lived
through earthquakes, there is a psychological toll that it
takes. I can see people saying, I don't want to go back in a
structure with a concrete roof. That doesn't mean I do not want
to have a place to live, but it means that I don't want to put
myself in a place where that roof could come down crumbling on
top of my head. I definitely see there is a psychological thing
there.
And then the long-term approach to helping Haiti realize
its dreams, and the real frustrating part of this is all of
this has to happen at the same time, and this is a challenge of
monumental proportion without the help of all of you, without
this committee and the Congress recognizing its role, without
the people of Haiti, this will not happen. And so I am going to
put it out there as a statement. I would like to hear from you,
Mr. Jean-Louis--I am trying, I am trying, and then maybe we can
go down and you can just give a quick kind of thoughts on what
I have laid out. Thank you.
Mr. Jean-Louis. Thank you very much for the question, and
Haiti has always been in a situation where Haiti needed help,
and when I say ``always,'' I am probably referring the past 200
years, since their independence. Now the situation which just
devastate Haiti on January 12th is a situation that nobody
could actually foresee and think about.
Would Haiti feel that the United States is afraid if they
come and help? No, I don't think so because before the
earthquake Haiti has been asking for help, been crying for
help, you know, however possible way. We just have to be
careful in how we help Haiti. It is a small island and it is
right next door. We don't have a lot of internal problems in
Haiti. We don't have any religion problems, any wars. We are
just a group of people that are looking for a better situation,
and something that I never understood as a Haitian is how
difficult is that to actually have such a small nation that is
located just a couple of hours away from America.
I think all Haitians would be more than happy to be helped,
but I think Haitians always will love to keep their dignity,
and will love to let people know that, you know, they mean
something to the world regardless of all the bad situation that
has happened to Haiti. As you must know, you know, we went
through the worst catastrophe from hurricanes, to earthquakes,
to political unrest and so on.
So, no, I think we are dealing with a nation that is just
ready and waiting for help, for real help, and that is why most
people here are a bit stunned by the reaction of the Haitians
after the earthquake. It is true there has not been too much
violence really compared to the level of devastation, so that
tells you a lot about the Haitian spirit. So, yes, we need the
help but we need the proper help.
Mr. Worthington. Thank you, Congressman Mack, for your
question, and the challenge for a U.S. nonprofit, and we always
use this term ``NGO,'' you have this mission. You have various
different missions and the bottom line is you want to keep
people alive. You want to educate, you want to provide safe
places for children in camps. You want to distribute food, but
at the same time you do not want to become an obstacle to
rebuilding, and that ultimately even though our members are 95
percent staffed by Haitians, it is ultimately a rebuilding
process of a nation. And that solution, and I am listening to
this whole panel here, even through different people, it is the
combination of all of these things.
It is greater government capacity. We must have the private
sector and so forth. You must have Haitian civil society, and
at least for some time you are going to have international
nonprofits--whether it is working through church groups or
other groups--as part of this solution. Right now there is sort
of a scramble for resources. As I mentioned, all these private
resources have not gotten there. But on average, if you look
across our communities, about 92 cents on the dollar tends to
actually be distributed in-country. I am nervous, and I have
heard this about the long run. Will these long-term pledges by
government actually come through because this will take time?
The Haitian people absolutely have the right to be very annoyed
if they are still in camps a year from now and the
international community has moved on, or 2 years from now.
Attention needs to be maintained over time.
Ultimately it is about the faith of the community to
rebuild itself, and our role as international actors is to do
what we can to facilitate that, but there are clear
contradictions and challenges between the imperative to keep
someone alive and slowly doing less in camps because you don't
want people there forever, and the ability to rebuild, and that
rebuilding inevitably is slower than what you could do in terms
of feeding, sheltering, and providing support in a camp, and
that is clearly not an adequate solution for the Haitian people
and their human rights. Thank you.
I must apologize to the chairman. Unfortunately, as I had
mentioned earlier, I do have to leave at this point, and thank
you very much for this opportunity.
Mr. Engel. Yes, thank you, Mr. Worthington. Thank you. Mr.
Reckford.
Mr. Reckford. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would just reiterate. I believe sort of a common theme is
all of these pieces are needed. We desperately need shelter, we
need all the other services. It is going to start ultimately
though with economic development. People need jobs, and if they
have jobs they can then--they can pay for shelter. They can pay
for the other things they need, and so I want to go back to
what we really need is the encomia roadmap and the
acceleration.
Even if it is not all done, there needs to be clarify
around where the major infrastructure investments are going to
go because we don't want to build permanent housing unless we
know there is going to be an economic base to support the
families in those. So before decentralization is going to work
we need to know where the major investments and infrastructure
are going to go. So the sooner there is the land planning, both
for the economy as well as for housing for families, the faster
those pieces can move. So even if not all the economic
development happens, even the commitments and the knowledge
that it will be coming, allows more actors to develop housing
and allows the private sector to begin to invest which there is
no structure now for the private sector to really come in and
make investments in Haiti.
Dr. Green. I am sorry Mr. Worthington left, but I was
shocked when he said 92 percent of the dollars have landed in
Haiti. I would like to guess it is about the opposite of that.
He is not here but if anyone else has evidence that 90 percent
of the billions of dollars raised are in Haiti, it is sure
invisible.
I think what is needed, you talk about security, that is a
big issue, and the United Nations has been inadequate. They
have army soldiers and heavy armored equipment with flack
jackets and helmets. There is no armies to fight in Haiti. We
need to develop a Haitian police force that is professional. We
need to get rid of the armed forces and bring in United Nations
police to instruct the Haitian police force and pay them
adequately so there is integrity, professionalism. They don't
have bullets for their guns. They don't have computers. They
don't have jails. They don't have a court system. So all these
things are essential.
But development needs to be multi-sector. It needs to be
integrated. There is no sense in me putting in a hospital if
there is not a factory. There is no sense putting houses if
there is not agricultural. We built a factory in the plateau
called Achamill that mills grains and beans, and micro
nutrients. That is what is needed, the economic engine. My
farmers in the plateau, you say selling food? They cannot even
raise enough, they don't have a tractor. They can't even raise
enough to eat. So you have to first level it from a substance
crop to a cash crop so they can pay for their houses through
micro finance.
This is the integrated development, community development,
bottoms up. That is what is going to be successful in Haiti,
and they deserve it, and they deserve it now. Thank you.
Ms. Nuri. I want to agree with Mr. Reckford that we need
jobs, that the Haitian people need jobs, and we have to make
sure that they have decent wages and labor protections. A job
for the sake of a job is not going to serve the community or
the economy or the future of Haiti. So to make sure that there
are labor protections in place when there are factories or in
any other place where they have a job.
The panel is discussing wonderful, very large, lofty
solutions, but there are some things that can happen on the
ground right now that Congress can put in place, and Mr. Shah
can correct immediately. One of them would be to include
Haitians in the United Nations coordinating rebuilding efforts.
There are cluster meetings that are happening daily that are
being translated into French and English, that are not being
translated into Kreyol, and Haitians by and large are not
invited to or not even allowed into those meetings. So if you
want Haitians to be part of the solution they should be part of
the meetings where the solutions are being crafted, and the
language they speak should be translated. That is something
that could be corrected immediately.
The security precautions and zoning systems have stopped
aid organizations from having an effect the way they need
because many of the international NGOs continue to use security
protocols which limit their movement throughout Port-au-Prince,
including measures to have them have direct interaction with
Haitians and be able to evaluate their own programs.
There is a zone system by which they cannot go into certain
areas because of security protocols that have been set up in
ancient times that Mr. Shah can break down right now and allow
agencies to really get into these camps, really see what is
going on, make sure that adequate food and water is being
delivered every single day. Those are things that we can
correct immediately.
The other thing is the international organizations,
including USAID, have such strenuous and lengthy accounting and
auditing requirements that local groups simply do not have the
capacity to compete or the process the proper paperwork. They
are being asked for 3 years of audited receipts in order to
become a contractor, and beyond the fact that there was an
earthquake so how would you find your receipts, the process in
Haiti is not the same as here, so you are asking--we are asking
contractors or people who could step in and help in Haiti to
live up to unrealistic standards of how you get the contract.
Those are things that we can fix right now. Everything the
panel has talked about has to be addressed, and as you said,
Mr. Mack, it has to be addressed immediately. But the things I
just listed can be corrected in a moment by Mr. Shah's office
and by members of this committee.
Mr. Fairbanks. Thank you. The world met in March at the
United Nations and I was there, and I made a list of the
platitudes that were spoken at the time. I will read you a few
of them: We need to build the engines for progress and
prosperity. We cannot accept business as usual. It is tempting
to fall back on old habits and the requisite is essential that
Haiti take ownership in the rebuilding effort.
We have not made progress on any of those, and that was in
March. What we have done very well, while the world was looking
at Haiti, is connected it to global networks of charity, aid,
debt forgiveness, and sentimentality. That is what we have
connected it to.
One of the world's greatest economists in history, Pope
John Paul II said, ``Poverty is the exclusion from networks of
productivity, investment, and trade.'' Pope John Paul said
that. What are we doing to connect the Haitian people to
networks of productivity, investment and trade?
I can tell you right now an NGO collected $600 million in a
campaign to help Haiti and hasn't dispersed a single dollar.
What is happening is that USAID is preaching the benefits of
decentralization, but cannot hire a non-American consultant to
go down and work in Haiti even though the Colombians understand
a lot more about post-earthquake recovery than we do. They
cannot hire a commercial consultant from the Dominican Republic
even though they know how to grow things and sell things from
the island, and we don't.
Congresswoman Waters talked about budget support for Haiti.
There should be no debate for this. We should provide budget
support for Haiti. But USAID, to its eternal shame, has
constructed a parallel decision-making government in every
country in the world in which it works. They have duplicated
and created a parallel decision-making structure and won't have
anything to do with the decision makers in the host countries.
That is just wrong, and we are the only major power to do that.
Japan gets it right and America gets it wrong. Sorry.
Ms. Nuri. Venezuela.
Mr. Fairbanks. And Venezuela gets it right. Maybe that is
the only thing they get right.
Budget support is a really good idea. If we trust the
Haitians, we should provide it. If we don't trust it, why are
we giving them money anyway?
Finally, what I would say is that we need to find the
indigenous innovators in that country in the sector, find out
who they are, how they do what they do, and give them rocket
fuel. There is a list of the world's best entrepreneurs in
Haiti. They would all be billionaires if they were raised in
America. They know how to employ people. They pay taxes. They
don't pollute the environment. This doesn't sound like the
Haitian private sector that gets all the news, but they are
there, and we need to find them and we need to give them rocket
fuel.
We need to look at the indigenous social entrepreneurs. I
hate that term, I regret using it, but find the indigenous
ones, find out how they do what they do, and give them rocket
fuel.
I am going to say something contentious again, but I am
going to pick on myself and not on anybody else, because maybe
that will make it more palatable. The only people that are
really benefitting from the way that we structured aid all over
the world, especially in Haiti, are people like me. I am
getting richer. Because of the oligopolistic structure that has
been set up to favor me, I am the one that is doing well in
this environment, not the people that we espouse to be helping.
Ms. Balliette. Thank you, Congressman Mack. I would like to
go back to one of your comments.
You did talk about the trauma in Haiti and I would like to
just come back to that for a minute because we should not
forget it is a traumatized country, and that includes all the
people living there: The people who work in CRS who are there
who started working immediately in the earthquake relief but
were in fact traumatized. Members of the government and all the
other organizations working there, that does affect what is
going on right now, and we should not forget it. When we wonder
why things are not moving more quickly, more smoothly, there
are things to be done better, but we have to remember that
underlying trauma that you don't necessarily see. You are
walking down the streets. I know many of you have been to Haiti
as I have. You see people getting back to life, getting back to
work, buying things in the market, but inside there is a trauma
that they are still trying to overcome, and that does affect
your ability to plan for the long term. We see that in all
devastated countries, your ability to really think long term
and make those decisions in your own lives that will affect
your long-term prosperity.
Going back, I think, to what the U.S. Government can do, I
think there have been a lot of good ideas here. I think, in
general, it has to do with listening. What is it that the
Haitian Government is asking of us that we can do to help them?
When we talked about shelter earlier there is a process
that the government is rolling out in coordination with the
U.N. and with NGOs to identify the houses that can be repaired,
to classify them, to determine what needs to be done, to go
back and verify that the work has been done well. There is a
process now for that that we need to follow up on, but for that
to move quickly perhaps there are more experts that need to be
there. Perhaps there is more work to be done on the building
codes, and perhaps there are experts from this country who can
provide additional assistance if the Government of Haiti is
asking for it.
Finally, I think in terms of funding, this has been
mentioned, there is the flexibility factor. The more that can
be done to be flexible the better we all will be, the more
creative we can be in our solutions to resolve the problems
that exists now. Thank you.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Before I call on Mr. Payne, I just
want to acknowledge the presence of the former chairman of the
full committee, Congressman Gillman, and we thank you for being
here. You can see Congressman Gillman over there. You can see
is portrait in the middle over here. I actually think you look
better now than you did then, Ben, but we are always happy to
have you come back and visit us, so thank you for your
presence.
Mr. Payne.
Mr. Payne. Thank you very much, and I, too, had the
privilege to serve under Mr. Gillman as the chairman, and it is
good to see him again, and he is with us every time we meet
because his picture is there watching us.
Let me say that we talked about the heavy roofs and that
people are reluctant in Haiti now to deal with them. As you
know, because hurricanes were the problem in Haiti as we all
know, it was felt that you need a strong roof because the roofs
are what are destroyed in hurricanes. And so since there has
been no earthquake for over 100 years no one thought
earthquake, and therefore the heavy roofs, which have become so
devastating in the earthquake now create a dilemma because then
people have to decide do we try to prevent hurricane resistance
or is it the possibility of an earthquake and this coming down.
So that is just a sidebar that is going through the mines of
some of the people in Haiti.
I think, secondly, the U.N. clusters that have been kind of
exclusive that pairs with the Interim Haiti Reconstruction
Commission having representatives, they have deputies, they
have senators, they have local people on, I think that those
days, the first 6 months, problems of exclusion and confusion
and, you know, this has been the most devastating tragedy to
happen anywhere in the world if you take it to scale.
And so I think that with the new--the Interim Haiti
Reconstruction Commission, some of those, hopefully, probably
that have occurred in this first 6 months will be dealt with
which several of you mentioned, and I could not agree with you
more.
Thirdly, I think that Mr. Fairbanks brings out a very good
point, that the possibility for Hispaniola as an island to move
forward you are absolutely correct. The wages are going up
around the world. China is starting to have strikes. The DR
getting to be a middle income country, and so the possibility
of tying Haitian labor with the possibility of a growth on the
island is great, and I agree with Ms. Nuri that we certainly
have to have labor rights and to try to have an expanded wage,
but I think that can certainly be, or expand on an incremental
basis.
However, I do think that the opportunity is right. As you
know, the DR has had a history that they talk about the
occupation of Haiti more than they do about the occupation of
the Spanish. They remember their independence from Haiti over
there and their independence from the colonial powers. So as we
know the history on Hispaniola during that period before was a
very tough, ugly history that the Dominicans was one of the
problems between the two countries.
I think that currently the new President Fernandez in a
recent meeting that we have had with him with members of the
Congressional Black Caucus led by Congressman Rangle talked
about wanting to extend their hand to Haiti to be more helpful,
and as a matter of fact they were fairly helpful, showing a new
relationship and respect and cooperation between the DR and
Haiti. So if that can be built on with the new leadership in
the DR, not new but relatively new, and with the elections
coming up in Haiti, I think that if we do some focusing it
could be to see how we can marry the two, where they can both
prosper, continue to prosper, and I think that we may be ready
for a new day, and that is where efforts that I am going to try
to expend, would how can you, you are one island, you know, how
can the two of you work together to benefit both of you.
Just a question. With the elections, Mr. Jean-Louis, there
will be two elections as you know, the elections for deputies
and senators will supposedly be in November of this year,
Presidential election is not this year. Presidential elections
will be held between February or May 2011. These two elections
are not at the same time.
One of the problems today is that the entire deputies have
expired, two-thirds of the senators have expired, leaving only
one-third of the governance. One, how do you see, if you are
that familiar or anyone else, how do you see the elections
working out? Do you think the peoples' mindset is there for
elections? To your knowledge, has the registration been
completed? And thirdly, is it true that Lavalas is excluded
from the elections, and if they are, who is excluding them? I
mean, who can exclude them? The President? What is going on
there? Maybe you can----
Mr. Jean-Louis. Well, as an artist, I always try to stay
away from politics.
Mr. Payne. Okay, that is a good point.
Mr. Jean-Louis. I come to witness, you know, to testify
about the situation in Haiti and hopefully by me testifying
will be able to help the country. I might have ideas on some of
your questions but I prefer not to----
Mr. Payne. Okay. Well, since you are the only Haitian
there, that is why I asked you the question. But if you are an
artist, and prefer to keep it in that vein, that is fine.
Anyone else like to comment on any of those issues? Yes,
Mr. Fairbanks.
Mr. Fairbanks. Nobody has any idea who the next President
is going to be and no one has any idea who is even running in
the election. There is one thing that is clear, which is
President Preval will choose someone and that person will have
the highest probability of success, and that President Preval
will remain in the background exerting a very strong influence
in the next term.
Ms. Nuri. And Mr. Payne, the Lavalas has been excluded by
the CEP, which is in temporary form now. The constitution calls
for a permanent panel to be appointed, but has not yet. So
Lavalas has been excluded from the ballot by the official
election panel.
Mr. Payne. You know, we do try not to interfere with the
politics of countries, but do you know of U.S. policy or
suggestions about the CEP about exclusion of political party?
If you are going to have a democratic elections, you know, like
I say, it is a sovereign country so we cannot go in and say you
have got to have these particular parties allowed to be on the
ballot. However, if we are talking about democracy, we
certainly should say, you know, an open democratic election is
really what we want. Of course, like I say, you are a sovereign
state and we cannot demand that you do anything.
Ms. Nuri. Well, sir, I don't know of any official U.S.
delegation that has gone and said this to Mr. Preval or to the
board of the CEP. I don't know of any official U.S. request
that Lavalas be put onto the ballot, but we do know in
TransAfrica that there have been lots of Haitians in the
diaspora who have gone on and said Lavalas must be included in
order for it to be a fair election.
We do know the largest political party in Port-au-Prince is
Lavalas, so it would sort of be like most of the people not
having their party represented on the ballot, so it will
present some sort of problem. From what I understand, and this
is anecdotal, I don't know anything official, that the reason
Lavalas was left off the ballot is because Mr. Aristide was not
in the country. But I only know that as an anecdotal thing. I
don't know that officially. I have not read that from CEP at
all.
But at this point officially Lavalas is not on the ballot
for either one of the elections.
Mr. Engel. I am going to let Mr. Reckford answer and then
we are going to move on because we are told there is going to
be a series of votes very soon, and I want to give everyone who
is up here a chance to ask questions. So Mr. Reckford, and then
I will call on Ms. Lee.
Mr. Reckford. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Actually, I would ask
your forbearance. I have to leave and head to the airport, but
I want to thank you for the opportunity to joint the committee
today, and for your interest in this critical issue, and
certainly would ask continued U.S. Government support,
particularly around these issues of land because if they are
not resolved then we won't see economic development or housing
get solved. But thank you for the chance to be with you today.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Reckford. Ms. Lee.
Ms. Lee. Thank you very much. Once again, Chairman Engel,
thank you for this very important hearing and thank all of you
for being here.
I wanted, first, Ms. Nuri with TransAfrica, thank you so
much. I want to thank Danny Glover and Nicole, and I have seen
them all the time when I am in Haiti.
Ms. Nuri. Yes.
Ms. Lee. Sean Penn, and they are even before the
earthquake, I mean, TransAfrica has continued to lead and to
really be there even below the radar but doing such wonderful
work. I just wanted to pursue this whole issue of Lavalas not
being on the ballot or not being part of the election. What is
the rationale and reason, the stated reason for that?
Secondly, and I will just ask all my question, and then you
can respond, to Mrs.--is it Balliette?
Ms. Balliette. Balliette.
Ms. Lee. You are right, everyone, anyone would be
traumatized after what has happened in Haiti, and I wanted to
just ask you about the mental health services, how you see that
in Haiti, and if there are enough mental health services, are
they culturally appropriate, and do we know what we need to do
on the mental health front?
And then to Dr. Green, I just want to ask you as it relates
to HIV and AIDS. Of course, Haiti has the highest incidence,
you know, in the Caribbean of HIV and AIDS. Has PEPFAR
responded? Are people getting their anti-retroviral drugs?
Prevention and treatment, is that still on the table given such
trauma that people are experiencing such dislocation? Are the
distribution of condoms, is testing available? Could you just
give us a sense of how you see the whole HIV/AIDS strategy as
it relates to now having to move forward from such a disaster?
Okay, we can start with you, Dr. Green, and then Ms. Nuri,
and then Ms. Balliette.
Dr. Green. Thank you. I will take a little shot on the
mental health area because I have been working if that is okay.
Ms. Lee. That is fine.
Dr. Green. The fact is if you look at all the allied health
professionals, if you take medicine, doctors, physicians and
nursing aside, and you look at psychologists, social workers,
physical therapists, recreational therapist, prosthetist, all
the different people that we take for granted in this country,
there are no real professional schools in Haiti, so there is a
very small workforce.
I think the psychology association, I spoke with them after
the earthquake had about 30 members for 10 million people. So
the whole cycle of social, the traumatic stress that has
occurred, all the people that are traumatized and really hurt
by this earthquake have few resources. There are groups, NGOs
that are working with the government to try and bring in the
workforce, but you really need to train bottoms up psycho-
social type health care workers that are going to really
interact with the Haitian people and help them get out of this
crisis. That is part of what we are doing with capacity
building. We are setting up training programs for allied health
professionals that did not exist before the earthquake.
The second issue, I have to tell you, this is some good
news. HIV and resistant TB in Haiti is much better treated than
in the United States. There is not a country in the world that
has a more effective record thanks to Bill Path, Paul Farmer,
all the people working in this area of infectious disease. The
death rate has plummeted. Triple therapy, which cannot be
afforded by many people in this country and in Europe, is given
there. There are wonderful national and regional systems
through the Ministry of Health in cooperation with them, and so
these people are not dying anymore, AZT is given for
transmission. There is wonderful programs where I work in the
plateau, the most isolated area.
So I have to tell you before the earthquake it was great.
The earthquake, of course, took away the supply. It took away
the community health centers collapsed, the doctors and nurses
died. So we are in a bit of a bad time right now. A lot of the
HIV people treated--the people who have been on treatment have
lost their access to medications. This is being restored now.
But I just want to tell you this is one thing we can be
proud of as cooperating with PEPFAR and this program. It has
been very effective in Haiti.
Ms. Balliette. If I could maybe start with that because CRS
is also implementing AIDS relief in Haiti, and we agree. It was
somewhat devastated in the immediate aftermath of the
earthquake, but there was such a strong basis there for that
program that we were very quickly able to get it back up to
speed, and ensure that all the people that were enrolled in the
program were able to continue to get services.
We are actually now using the foundation there for our AIDS
relief program to roll out larger health institution
strengthening with the network there, and in coordination with
the government and the Ministry of Health in Haiti. So I do
think there are grounds for optimism in the health sector.
Going back to the trauma and just to agree that the
capacity is not there. We ourselves brought in some people from
actually a partner in Karitas Lebanon, to help our own staff to
get over the trauma or to at least work through parts of it,
and we are continuing to do things like that, but there is not
an excess capacity on the ground to help the people so
desperately need it.
Ms. Lee. And Ms. Nuri, with regard to just Lavalas, the
rationale for Lavalas being excluded, and you heard Dr. Shah's
comment on direct budgetary support for the Haitian Government.
What is TransAfrica's take on that?
Ms. Nuri. Well, of course, we support direct budgetary
support for the Haitian Government because our point of view is
that because of whatever the reasons are, and I am sure there
are some historical reasons, a lot of the money that is going
into Haiti is not even going to the government. So we are
making demands on a government that isn't getting international
funding at all.
And even out of the donors conference, there is only a
handful of countries that have even given money they have
promised in sort of an appropriations process like we do in
this country, and they haven't gotten the money to do the
basics of putting together the government, let alone moving
forward and through an election.
So we support budgetary support and support for the
election process with all sorts of guidance that is in my
original statement that we can get to your office.
To answer your question about why Lavalas has been excluded
from the ballot, what we know is that several parties have been
excluded from the ballot. We do not know the rationale for why,
and we can find that out and get it to the committee and get it
back to your office, in particular, and other members.
But we also know that the U.N. certified the last election
and said the voter turnout was only 10 percent. We are not sure
if there was any connection between that and who got left off
the ballot in an official sort of way, but we will find out the
answer and get back to you.
Mr. Engel. I am going to move on because we have a series
of five votes coming up and I want to give other members a
chance to ask questions. I want to acknowledge Representative
Sheila Jackson Lee. Committee members are here, but I would ask
unanimous consent to allow Ms. Waters to ask her questions now
since she has been here for several hours. So without
objection, Ms. Waters, and then we will go on to Ms. Jackson
Lee.
Ms. Waters. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I certainly
appreciate the opportunity to come here today and to be able to
participate, and I would like to thank you for the interest
that you have shown and your travels to Haiti. I was on one
such trip with you when we went to DR and to Haiti. I would
like to thank all the members who have come today to serve as
witnesses to help us make some determinations about what we can
do to be more helpful. I would like to thank TransAfrica, Ms.
Nuri in particular. I served on that board for many years, and
at the time our director, Randall Robinson, almost died because
he went on a hunger strike for Haiti, and that was an important
moment in the history of our relationship with Haiti and what
Clinton was able to do following those actions.
For Dr. Green, when I went to Haiti right after the
earthquake we landed at the airport. I came over in a little
private plane. Your place was the first place I went to. I just
started walking around and ended up over at the clinic that you
guys had set up, and some of the volunteers kind of brought me
over there and I was very appreciative for your ability to
respond so quickly, and at that time you may have been one of
the only emergency operations set up dealing with the trauma
that was in Port-au-Prince other than some other makeshift
kinds of things that were going on. So I would like to thank
all of you for your participation today.
All of you have talked about the lack of involvement of
Haitians in decision making, in planning, et cetera, and that
is an important element that is not involved, and happen to
plan for the future of Haiti. But let me just ask Ms.
Balliette, I think it is, from CRS. You guys are on the ground
and you are in those cluster meetings, but the Haitians are not
in the cluster meetings. They can't get in. I wandered around
for a few days, and found cluster meetings and understood,
began to understand how they were organized. Have you guys
taken any of the local Haitians to the cluster meetings?
Ms. Balliette. We work very closely with, especially
Karitas Haiti, but there are also other organizations in Haiti,
Haitian organizations that we work with. So because we are
implementing together, we might decide, we talk beforehand what
are the issues for the meetings, what are our implementation--
--
Ms. Waters. But that is not my question. What I saw was the
NGOs had access for the most part, but the people that they
were helping did not have access. My question to you is if you
want to break up this business of exclusion, the NGOs who have
access should be bringing in some of the people that they are
working for and working with to these meetings. Have you done
that?
Ms. Balliette. Honestly, I can't say specifically for all
of the cluster meetings that we participate in whether or not
we are bringing in specific individuals to those meetings. I
can just say again the way we work is together with our Haitian
partners to make sure that what we are doing is involving their
voice as much as possible.
Ms. Waters. Well, I appreciate that and I am not blaming
you, but I am simply talking about ways that you can be helpful
in sharing information and helping people to get involved who
evidently are excluded from involvement.
Yes, Dr. Green. Is your microphone on, Dr. Green?
Dr. Green. Yes, I have to tell you that the cluster
meetings are joke in general. We attend all the different
clusters, and we always bring Haitian employees who are Haitian
nurses or doctors or administrators, whatever is appropriate,
but the cluster meetings are very ineffective. They last for
hours. You don't talk, you don't discuss, you listen. You get
reports, and so I think we need better interagency
communication
And I want to show you, I don't know if you are aware of
this, there is a private sector economic forum, and they have
met, and this is the private sector which represents probably
200,000 Haitian business people, families who want to be part
of the solution.
Ms. Waters. Excuse me. Is that the one that Juan Henry
Saiiant is involved with?
Dr. Green. I don't know, but I know that they came recently
to meet with Jean Max Bellerieve in Miami, and they have been
very involved. They have gone to the government and said let us
be part of the solution. I would be happy to share this report.
Ms. Waters. I would like to see that report.
Dr. Green. But everything you have talked about they want
to do. They want to open up the airports and the customs and
they want to engage the people, the masses of people in job
creation and development, and I think this is going to happen
if they are allowed to.
Ms. Waters. Well, I think it is a great idea. One of the
things we need to understand is who they are because, as you
know, the privileged families that have been basically in
control of the economics of Haiti for so long are very
exclusionary, and that that middle class business person that
you are referring to has not been really involved in the
business development and the economic development of Haiti, and
I think that certainly does have to be expanded.
If I may, because he is going to shut me down in a few
minutes, let me just say this. NGOs have had a special
relationship with Haiti for a long time because we sent our
money to the NGOs rather than fund the government. It's part of
the history of all of this, and that certainly has to change.
There has to be a working relationship and cooperation,
reporting too, and an understanding of all of that.
Now having said all of that everybody is trying to do
something good for Haiti in different ways, and it has been
expressed here. But what you cannot talk about is simply what
our fine actor, Mr. Jimmy Jean-Louis said, you can't talk
politics. TransAfrica can because that is part of what they do,
and understanding how to get things done and how governments
work.
There is a governance problem in Haiti, a governance
problem. When you talk about how are you going to get things
built, how are you going to create jobs, how are you going to
do all of these things, that is normally what would be done by
the government. And until that is solved it is going to be
very, very difficult for people to be able to do all that they
would want to do.
Ms. Nuri just talked about the CEP, and what it is and what
it is not. You want to know why Lavalas is not on the ballot?
Because if Lavalas was on the ballot they could elect anybody
they want to elect. It is the biggest party in Haiti, and they
think it is still controlled from afar in South Africa by
President Bertrand Aristide. That is why it is not on the
ballot.
I sent a letter months ago, and others, I think someone
from the Senate side sent letters, urging them to be sure and
allow the political parties to operate and to be on the ballot
and operate in a democratic way. The CEP determines that and
they are picked by the President Preval. They are a sovereign
nation, and even Bill Clinton and others recognize that it is a
sovereign country, and you cannot just go in and tell people
what to do.
But I am coming to the conclusion that in exchange for
support that we are going to have to be a little bit more
forceful in encouraging certain kinds of things. For example,
to stop the delivery of food and have food in warehouses and
then have television cameras from the United States showing
kids scraping the bottom of burnt pots trying to get a grain of
rice while food is stored because there is a policy that says
you can't distribute any more food because you are displacing
the local vendors and merchants.
United States could help with that policy and help to show
how the agencies that are helping can purchase the food from
the vendors so that they can continue to earn money and food
could be given to the people rather than the food simply being
purchased someplace else and brought in and given to the
people, and then the government stops it because the merchants
get mad at them.
This has to be worked out, and if we are going to be
helpful we need to say to President Preval and others we think
we can help you work this out in ways that will benefit the
merchants and will benefit the people, and the people won't
have to be hungry.
The land problem, the land problem is not going to go away
by itself. First of all, there are questions about who owns it.
There are records that have been lost and on and on and on. A
legislature must be empowered, elected, and make some
determinations about eminent domain and other kinds of things
that you do in order to have good land use policies.
We can't do that, you can't do that, but we can encourage
and we can teach and we can have development. And this business
about the police force, you are absolutely right. No, the
United States cannot go in there with helmets and guns keeping
the peace and killing people just as MINUSTAH cannot continue
to do what they do. We have got to train and develop a local
police force, fund it and stick with it in the training until
they get it, and pay them good salaries.
So some of us are going to focus on governance. Some of us
are going to talk about what our role is going to be in helping
to strengthen government. We are not to tell them who to elect.
That is not our problem. But our problem is to continue to try
and work with a situation where there is no real government in
place, organized in order to facilitate what governments do in
the building of this infrastructure, et cetera. This is very
difficult for everybody.
I think Mr. Fairbanks is right and this usually happens
with a lot of poor nations, including Africa. Everybody makes
money but the people who live there, because by the time all
the consultants are hired and the different organizations are
hiring advisors, et cetera, everybody is making money. Even in
the Cash for Work Program going on right now, I am learning
that our USAID is giving money to the contractors. The
contractors are paying $1 or $2 a day, as bad as the exploiters
on the ground who have been exploiting labor in Haiti for years
and years and years.
So, thank you, Mr. Chairman, for all of this time you have
afforded me and others. We have a lot of work to do. I have
decided which way I am going with my work. I am going to deal
with this governance issue and hopefully we can be advisors and
supporters and help develop a strong government.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Ms. Waters, and thank you for all the
work, all the good work that you have done involving Haiti for
years and years as I mentioned before, not just for the
earthquake but even before. You have truly been a leader and
have shown us the way.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for
allowing me to join as well, and to follow members who have
been here to listen to the testimony, and to be able to say
ditto in following suit on the direction that many members have
taken, including the detailed explanation and discussion of
Congresswoman Waters.
I think that, although many of us have engaged with Haiti
on many different occasions, many of them volatile as relates
to governance, that I want to be hopeful and I want the
hopefulness, however, to be with a very firm hand because I
think if we don't have hope with command and firmness we have
nothing.
I would like to say to the chairman we are an authorizing
committee and I would like TransAfrica to answer this question,
I, frankly, would like to have you really be financially
supported by our appropriations or authorizing and then
appropriations, that means we have to move quickly to be of
real assistance on the governance issue. All of the points that
I have heard just sitting here for the few minutes I have
happen to be even in the obstacles of an earthquake traced back
to a government that is not functioning. And when you speak to
Haitian people and you walk through the camps, that is what
they say. Maybe in not that term but can somebody help us.
I don't know, and I realize and let me just say that I
acknowledge that the government lost personnel and leaders and
parliamentarians, and all of us have offered our deepest
sympathy and respect. When we were in a meeting with the
President and his cabinet and staff, one of his high-ranking
personnel had lost a son. What can you say about that other
than to offer your deepest sympathy?
But as we do that we really need to get boxing gloves on
because when you have food sitting in a warehouse and you have
orphans two miles down, around the block, up the street, you
really have to say this. Mr. whatever dignified public position
you have, take your feet and a bucket and go to the warehouse,
and go back with the bucket, a wheelbarrow, the pickup truck,
and take it to the children. That is government. Government
finds a way to respond when no one else can.
What happened with Katrina? They were mad at government
because they knew everything else collapsed. They knew that the
dam went, not the dam but the structure went in their
neighborhood. They knew that, you know, they were up to their
ears in water. They knew that other elements did not work, but
they said where is the Federal Government?
So let me ask you about what you could do if financed on
the governance? Could you lift yourself up, plant yourself down
with a team to begin to probe what are the fractures of the
government where you could begin to say if you do this and you
do this, you could at least get yourself focused on what you
are supposed to be doing? Maybe moving debris, maybe cleaning
up the tents, maybe taking half of the tent cities and shutting
them down and putting people back in their home, which we heard
a large percentage could be livable if they were fixed? Would
you please?
Ms. Nuri. Well, the answer to that question was I work for
TransAfrica, and the answer is we can do anything if afford it.
And Haiti has been a mission of the organization for more than
20 years.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Absolutely.
Ms. Nuri. We have been on the ground in Haiti through all
sorts of hurricanes, and political upheaval, and every day,
every day we have been dedicated to this since January 12, to a
point where I wake up every morning and the first thing I look
for is the latest information on what is going on on the ground
in Haiti as the organization's chief of staff.
The decision about what we can do and how that structure
will be, my overall answer to you is yes. The detail of that
will be worked out by the President of our organization, Nicole
Lee, and our chairman of the Board, Danny Glover. But overall,
ma'am, my answer to you would be of course we want to be part
of this. We work very closely with Representative Waters and
Representative Lee, and with your office and with Mr. Payne's
office, and also with Mr. Engel's office on this issue and
others. But I would say that we truly want to be a part of
making sure that the Haitian Government, the elected Haitian
Government is leading Haitian people, and that Haitian civil
society is advising that government and doing it.
So, whatever TransAfrica can bring to the table to assure
that for this generation and for future generations because
like Dr. Green said, this time we have to get it right.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Absolutely. Let me just raise this and
then I would like the other panelists, thank you so very much,
to answer my second question. Let me focus in on you just a
little bit because I would like our chairman, who has been
unwielding in his commitment to the Western Hemisphere and his
knowledge of Haiti, and I thank you, Chairman Engel, for your
astuteness and your commitment and passion. Let us be a little
more specific and I know both of your leaders and they are
wonderful people, but let me use your genius right now.
Let us say, for example, here is the detail or not the
detail but here is the kind of commitment, and I would like the
chairman to be supportive of TransAfrica because of its
familiarity and comfortableness with the people, I, frankly,
believe that you need to be in essence sort of the box around
the contents. The government is the contents. If there is a
meeting talking about issues of governance and how to get the
water on, how to move trash, I think they need that kind of
close hand involvement.
Certainly if there is a meeting about this recovery,
because of our familiarity with how the garbage is supposed to
move and how you can go to warehouse and get goods, I, frankly,
believe that you could put a team together that would be able
to be part. There are a lot of NGOs, and I am not leaving them
out, but part of that structuring them to be able to put A in
front of B in front of C, and it is not insulting to them.
Could you do that?
Ms. Nuri. Yes, ma'am, and I would say that the leadership
on that would have to be the Haitian people who actually know
it. Where the wisdom would come is coming from this government
and coming from this country that has mastered so many of those
many items that you have listed and far more.
But the people on the ground in Haiti, our colleagues on
the ground there would have to also work with us on the ground
to get this done.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I would not rule against that, but I would
hope that they would be in a position that they could work with
you, but you would have to be in a position to instruct them as
well.
Ms. Nuri. If what you are asking is do we want to take a
leadership role on making sure that Haiti's governance comes
back to shape or gets in shape?
Ms. Jackson Lee. Absolutely.
Ms. Nuri. That the people of Haiti are served? Of course,
we will accept that role.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Let me ask this question and if all of you
would answer it, please. I get a sense that there is great
movement but there is great suffering. I want each of you to
tell us in your own words the limited time, of course I am
putting my framework on it, that we have to act before we have
catastrophes of major proportion. Can we start with the actor
who was there, and thank you for your talent, your commitment,
and your passion?
Mr. Engel. Let me just say we will go right through to
everybody and then we will have to have the last word because
we were just called for a series of five votes.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Jean-Louis. Thank you very much. I think we have to act
now. We have to start acting straight away if I understand your
question. Once again, I go back to so many problems that I see
in Haiti, and I always go back to the main one which is the
human rights, and that is what makes me cry, you know----
Ms. Jackson Lee. Yes.
Mr. Jean-Louis [continuing]. To see the entire population
living under these conditions, what can we do for them, what
can we do for 1 million peoples sleeping out in the tents. We
just need to start giving them places to be because we have the
hurricane coming up, so it is now that we need to act.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Mr. Jean-Louis. Doctor?
Dr. Green. I believe that the masses of people in Haiti who
have directly suffered have had enough. I don't think there is
any time. I think we have to show some visible evidence and
commitment of transparency, and that we are really what we say
we are. We are Americans who care about what their problems
are.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Our presence.
Dr. Green. Medically, just as an example we raised $7
million for the earthquake at Project Medishare. We are out of
money in 30 days. We have the largest critical care hospital,
the only one in Haiti. We are going to have to shut it down.
Ms. Jackson Lee. I was there, yes.
Dr. Green. Selling tee shirts isn't working any longer. So
we are hoping that somewhere funding will continue so we can
continue training health care workers, building capacity, and
creating sustainability, but it is almost too late. We need to
act now.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you. Let me skip you and go on to
the--thank you.
Mr. Fairbanks. There is not a recorded incident in the
history of the world where aid has ever lifted a nation out of
poverty. It has never happened. It doesn't exist, not even in a
reasonable-sized region. Aid is very good at humanitarian
concerns, doing what Dr. Green does, that is what aid is really
good at. It is not good at growing an economy, and we need to
be deeply introspective about our own limitations when we try
to do that.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Yes.
Ms. Balliette. I would just say that what needs to happen
now is we need to speed up our efforts. We need to redouble our
efforts. I think a lot of good things are happening but we need
to listen to the ideas of people that are coming out of the
lessons that are being learned, and we need to work faster and
harder.
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you. Joia.
Ms. Nuri. I would say that we have moved out of the
emergency phase too fast. We have moved onto reconstruction.
Our minds are into this reconstruction when people are still
hungry, women are being raped on the streets, our children are
not safe in Haiti, and I think that we have moved--of course,
reconstruction should be on the plate, we should be discussing
it. But the emergency phase, as Dr. Green has articulated, is
still in place. And if we move on too fast we will actually
have nothing to build reconstruction on.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, I am going to----
Ms. Jackson Lee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Engel [continuing]. Let that be the last word, but
first I want to call on Mr. Payne. He has a unanimous consent
request.
Mr. Payne. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I ask unanimous consent
that a statement from the American Red Cross be entered into
the record.
Mr. Engel. Without objection, so moved.
Let me conclude because we have 6 minutes and 59 seconds to
get to our votes. I want to thank all of you for excellent,
excellent testimony. Since I have been chairman, now it has
been 4 years, and before that as the ranking member, we have
now had about 3\1/2\ hours at this hearing, which is the
longest hearing I think we have ever had, and for good reason,
because we had excellent testimony first from Dr. Shah, and
then from the seven of you, and I want to thank the five of you
who are left for sticking it out, and really helping all of us
in understanding better what is happening on the ground in
Haiti.
We all want to be of help, but we can only be of help if we
listen to the people who are on the ground, who have the
experience, who can tell us, you know, cutting away all the
extraneous materials, tell us just what is happening, and that
is what we received today from all of you.
So thank you for helping us to better understand what is
going on. Thank all of you for your caring. Thank all of you
for your excellent work. Working together we are going to
continue to make sure that the people of Haiti get the right
help and get everything that they deserve. Haiti is a country
that is close to the United States, and it is a shame and it
cannot stand that there is so much suffering there at a time
when we have bounty of wealth here.
So, again, thank you all, and the hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 1:03 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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