The report includes four pages key recommendations regarding managing of the reconstruction process through the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, monitoring and evaluation of aid disbursement, implementing a "Haiti sector system" along the sector-wide approach (SWAp) model, ensuring continued capacity building, and support for the private sector, among others.
Working group leads discussed the outcomes of their sessions and the Steering Committee addressed the representatives to review the conference's progress.
"It is important for us to acknowledge that the current humanitarian situation on the ground presents significant challenges related to humanitarian relief that must be addressed," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, introducing the final document. "Even as we make recommendations in this report related to longer-term recovery and reconstruction we still have to face current issues while we implement."
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| UN Secretary General Ban presents the final report of the Haiti Reconstruction Conference. |
While there was significant unanimity on the introduction of the "sector system," the conference reached an impasse on the issue of funding collaboration. They reached consensus to support pooled funding only "in principle" while still maintaining bilateral funding mechanisms.
The delegates were invited to sign the final report or submit a dissenting opinion if they so chose. While no conferees declined to sign, many did submit "Additional Viewpoints" on the final report.
The international financial institutions -- which were not allowed to present at the opening plenary -- were the first delegates to address the audience, and largely expressed their disappointment with the weaknesses of the recommendations.
"We find it hard to believe that the sector partnership will be an equal partnership given the current weakness of the Haitian government," Inter-American Development Bank representative Eduardo Marques Almeida said. "Why do I believe this to be the case? Quite simply: power and politics."
The remaining diplomats were allowed to briefly share their closing thoughts before the signing ceremony. The delegates from the House of Representatives referred the audience to the Fox News blog's article on their support for the final report. Presidential candidates Michel Martelly and Mirlande Manigat also referred to the website's coverage of their pledge to uphold peace in Haiti.
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| The delegates line up to sign the final document. While all pledged support, some expressed reservations. |
Mario Andresol, Haiti's National Police Commissioner, was satisfied with the conference outcome and expressed appreciation to the U.S. government for its contribution of $19.4M in support of security. However, he stressed the importance of the document's first recommendation, that donors quickly follow up on their contribution pledges.
"This will be necessary in order to continue the great work in Haiti," he told Fox News.
Time will tell if his wishes -- and those of the long-suffering Haitian people -- will be fulfilled, and that the delegates' actions will not have been in vain.
The Dominican delegation closed the session on a positive note.
"To our Haitian friends and neighbors, to our brothers and sisters of Hispaniola," Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic Carlos Morales Troncoso began, "we in the Caribbean know that after the hurricane, the rays of sun come out; that this time of sorrow is also a time of hope."
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| The final signatures. |
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