Haiti donors' conference

Today is a big UN donors' conference to fund Haiti's reconstruction.

Here is an article by Grassroots International criticizing past trends of international development aid to Haiti, and fretting about whether future efforts will continue the same misled policies of export-led, anti-agrarian economic development. At the end of the article you'll find an 8-point plan for Haitian development, laid out by Haitian progressive leader Camille Chalmers.

Here is an article by Beverly Bell discussing examples of spontaneous people-people displays of solidarity in the aftermath of the earthquake, and here is a follow-up article discussing more institutional manifestations of communal solidarity in Haiti. The latter of the two makes reference to a joint statement by a coalition of Haitian progressive organizations, which you can read in its entirety here.

Despite exclusion of grassroots organizations from many official planning sessions for Haitian reconstruction, it seems that at today's UN donors' conference Haiti will make the point for more involvement of its government in the rebuilding of the country. If the Haitian government is actually given a central role in the rebuilding process, that will be a great advance, because the elected government has been marginalized for so many years in the history of Haiti. It seems that they've got a pretty well-thought plan for creating new urban and rural spaces. Though the Haitian government's plan is a top-down, technocratic affair, it's better that it be planned and undertaken by them than to leave reconstruction in the hands of unelected foreign bureaucrats and self-proclaimed development experts. Furthermore, even if current development plans do not include much input from the people and grassroots groups, if the Haitian government is responsible for reconstruction, there is a good chance that normal Haitians will be able to make their priorities be heard and respected by the government.

So I'm hopeful right now, perhaps ingenuously so.