HAITI'S RECOVERY

U.S. President Barack Obama announced that former presidents Bill Clinton, who also acts as the UN special envoy to Haiti, and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Haiti on 16 January to survey the damage and stated that US$48 million had been raised already in the U.S. to help Haiti recover.[191] Following the meeting with Secretary Clinton, President Préval stated that the highest priorities in Haiti's recovery were establishing a working government, clearing roads, and ensuring the streets were cleared of bodies to improve sanitary conditions.[192]

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden stated on 16 January that President Obama "does not view this as a humanitarian mission with a life cycle of a month. This will still be on our radar screen long after it's off the crawler at CNN. This is going to be a long slog."[193]


Relief operations crowd the tarmac at Port-au-Prince airport, 18 January.Trade and Industry Minister Josseline Colimon Fethiere estimated that the earthquake's toll on the Haitian economy would be massive, witth one in five jobs lost.[194] In response to the earthquake, foreign governments offered badly needed financial aid. The European Union promised €330 million (US$474 million) for emergency and long-term aid. Brazil announced R$375 million (US$210 million) for long-term recovery aid, US$15 million of which in immediate funds.[195] The United Kingdom's Secretary of State for International Development Douglas Alexander called the result of the earthquake an "almost unprecedented level of devastation", and committed the UK to ₤20 million (US$32.7 million) in aid, while France promised €10 million (US$14.4 million). Italy announced it would waive repayment of the €40 million (US$55.7 million) it had loaned to Haiti,[145] and the World Bank waived the country's debt repayments for five years.[196] On 14 January, the U.S. government announced a large relief fund effort for Haiti. President Obama said the U.S. would give US$100 million to the aid effort for the stricken Caribbean country and pledged that the people of Haiti "will not be forgotten".[197]

The government of Canada announced that it would match the donations of Canadians up to a total of CAD$50 million.[198] After a United Nations call for help for the people affected by the earthquake, Canada pledged an additional CAD$60 million (US$58 million) in aid, bringing Canada's total contribution to CAD$135 million (US$131.5 million).[199]

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal offered interested Haitians free land in Senegal; depending on how many respond to the offer, this could include up to an entire region.[200]


A U.S. mobile air traffic control tower is moved to Haiti by a Russian transport plane.Prime Minister Bellerive announced that from January 20, people would be helped to relocate outside the zone of devastation, to areas where they may be able to rely on relatives or better fend for themselves; people who have been made homeless would be relocated to the makeshift camps created by residents within the city, where a more focused delivery of aid and sanitation could be achieved.[145] The earthquake left an estimated two million people homeless. Port-au-Prince, according to an international studies professor at the University of Miami, was ill-equipped before the disaster to sustain the number of people who had migrated there from the countryside over the past ten years to find work.[201] After the earthquake, thousands of Port-au-Prince residents began returning to the rural towns they came from.[202]

On 25 January a one-day conference was held in Montreal to assess the relief effort and discuss further plans. Prime Minister Bellerive told delegates from 20 countries that Haiti would need "massive support" for its recovery from the international community. A donors' conference is likely to be held at the UN headquarters in New York in March