(1999-07) Report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti (E/1999/103)
Summary — Founding report of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti, created in May 1999, assessing the adequacy, coherence, effectiveness and coordination of international assistance and recommending a long-term programme of support.
Key Findings
- Haiti's per capita income of 250 dollars compared with a Latin American and Caribbean average of 3,320 dollars, about 80 percent of the rural two-thirds of the population were poor, and an estimated 4 percent of Haitians owned 66 percent of the country's resources. Total bilateral and multilateral assistance dropped about 35 percent between 1995 and 1998, driven not by donor withdrawal but by absorptive constraints and the Parliament's failure to approve over 570 million dollars in pending IDB and World Bank programmes during the executive-legislative standoff. Despite the drop, Haiti still received relatively high per capita aid (74 dollars in 1995, 47 dollars in 1997, against 12 dollars for the developing world). The Group recommended a long-term programme of support built on national stability, security, and coordinated, effective assistance, a recommendation ECOSOC took up in resolution 1999/11.
Full Description
This is the original report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti, created by ECOSOC resolution 1999/4 of 7 May 1999 at the Security Council's invitation to advise on making international assistance to Haiti adequate, coherent, well coordinated and effective. Chaired by Indonesia with members from Latvia, Mauritius, Brazil and Canada, the Group held briefings with the World Bank, UNDP and UN departments, joined a donors meeting in Washington, and visited Haiti from 27 to 29 June 1999, meeting President Préval, Prime Minister Alexis and a broad range of actors. The report situates Haiti as the western hemisphere's only least developed country, with annual per capita income of 250 dollars against a regional average of 3,320 dollars, extreme wealth concentration and mass rural poverty. It finds that total aid dropped about 35 percent between 1995 and 1998, largely because the parliamentary crisis blocked approval of over 570 million dollars in IDB and World Bank programmes. Its recommendations, the origin of the long-term programme of support, address national stability, a secure domestic environment, continued UN missions and a synthesis report on UN activities.
Notes
UN document E/1999/103; founding report of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti; ayitistats wave B