Review of the International Cooperation Portfolio, September 16 to 20, 2013
- More than fifteen meetings were held with the principal donors during the week.
- The Prime Minister said that channeling more financing through NGOs than through the Haitian government cannot lead to aid effectiveness, and he favored budget support to the Treasury.
- The IDB reported delays in the rehabilitation of 19 schools and the construction of 30 others, with about 2 million dollars in additional funds needed to renegotiate contracts.
- The IDB discussion proposed adopting a school model costing 400,000 dollars instead of 700,000 dollars, which it said would save 40 percent per building and fund 200,000 more children in the free-school program.
- A government task force was announced to speed the disbursement of promised funds, and the participants agreed to meet again in about two months.
The review took place in the week of September 16, 2013 in Port-au-Prince, with more than fifteen meetings with the IDB, USAID, the World Bank, Canada, the European Commission, Venezuela, Cuba, France, UNDP, Brazil, Japan, Spain, Taiwan, Mexico and the OAS. The stated aim was to find a way to finalize and revive public projects and to identify with each agency the obstacles to implementation. The Prime Minister pressed donors on the weight of financing channeled through NGOs compared with financing through the Haitian government, and favored budget support to the Treasury or sector-ministry ownership of projects.
Constraints raised by donors and government included the time taken by the National Public Procurement Commission to review files, delays in counterpart funds, weak monitoring of school, health, road and building projects, expropriation and site problems, missing staff for new equipment and recurrent costs. The Prime Minister announced a task force to monitor externally financed projects and the participants agreed to meet again in about two months.
How to cite
Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE), Review of the International Cooperation Portfolio, September 16 to 20, 2013, accessed via HaitiDocs, https://www.haitidocs.org/doc/mpce-2013-09-revue-portefeuille-cooperation-internationale
- Rights holder
- Ministère de la Planification et de la Coopération Externe (MPCE)