Donors must stick with Haiti: World Bank president

Donors in Haiti need to work speedily to ensure desperation does not turn to violence in the aftermath of the earthquake and they must be prepared to stay the course to rebuild the country, World Bank president Robert Zoellick said on Tuesday.

In an interview with Reuters, Zoellick said Haiti had some of the worst human development indicators in the world before the earthquake devastated the country and this was the "opportunity to build back better."

"First and foremost that means when cameras leave, the donors don't leave with them," he said. "The key point from the reconstruction side is support has to be there for the long haul."

Zoellick said development experiences from Afghanistan, Liberia, and Aceh province in Indonesia hit by a 2004 tsunami, showed that donors should work with governments, and not bypass them, to rebuild countries and coordinate their aid.

"Haiti can't be reconstructed by outsiders, no matter how well meaning, so donors are going to have to work hand-in-hand with the Haitian government and people," Zoellick said.

To increase the likelihood of success, the prospect of major international support could also prod Haiti's politicians to work together and show leadership and resolve, he said.

For donors, the challenge is to ensure aid is used effectively and tailored to the government's long-term goals.

Experiences in countries hit by war and disasters also showed that aid should be in the form of grants and not loans, and should be pooled in a multi-donor trust fund managed by the World Bank, he said.

"As people look toward reconstruction we need better aid coordination, fewer feel-good projects and less flag-planting, but also but also strong oversight and accountability so people feel their money is well spent," Zoellick said.

He said the immediate priority for the international community was to save lives and to support relief groups in providing food, water and shelter to earthquake survivors.

Since its era of dictatorship ended in 1990, Haiti has struggled with rebellions and coups as well as floods and hurricanes, most recently in 2004 and 2008, that killed thousands of people. Despite billions of dollars in aid, it has remained the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

While donors were thinking about longer-term reconstruction it was important that those plans not interfere with the immediate humanitarian process, Zoellick said.

He said it was clear that the United States had "put a lot of might" into helping Haiti and he praised UN agencies such as the World Food Programme for their "heroic work."

Once humanitarian efforts start winding down, Zoellick said reconstruction could be started by mobilizing communities through food for work programs to help clean up rubble of collapsed buildings or planting trees in a country stripped bare by deforestation.

It was also an opportunity to tap the goodwill of the Haitian diaspora, Zoellick said.

Beyond repairing broken infrastructure, Zoellick said Haiti could also use its close proximity to the United States to attract the private sector through a provision that allows textiles made in Haiti into the United States duty free.

"Geography has been Haiti's curse because of hurricanes, but geography can also be an opportunity because it's 600 miles away from the US market," Zoellick added.

There were also opportunities to foster closer economic ties with its neighbor the Dominican Republic and develop electricity transmission lines to Haiti's north coast so as not to rely on the overburdened capital Port-au-Prince, he said.