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Haiti

World Bank Special Envoy Hopes to Make Haiti a Model for Reconstruction

WASHINGTON DC, May 6, 2010 - Armed with his rich global expertise and lifetime dedication to social issues, the World Bank's newly-appointed special envoy to Haiti, Alexandre Abrantes, sees his assignment as a mission to help rebuild the Caribbean nation as a regional model for reconstruction.

Abrantes, 58, appointed to the job in mid April, says that the pillars supporting this goal are good governance and strong community involvement, which the Bank has been advancing to support Haiti's long-term sustainability even before the January 12 earthquake that claimed the lives of more than 230,000 people.

The public health specialist and operations manager in several African fragile states and most recently Brazil, has an ambitious agenda that includes an immediate effort to manage better the risk of catastrophes, expand the nation's safety nets and rebuild the government's capacity to function efficiently while improving its governance long-term.

Abrantes says he's relying on the Bank's considerable convening power and reconstruction expertise to get all actors -local and global- to pull together towards making Haiti a model of international cooperation with strong local involvement.

"Our input in terms of money is relatively small when compared to other donors' such as the US, Canada, the EU, but our real contribution lies in our global expertise and our ability to bring players to the table", said Abrantes, noting that the Bank's community-driven projects -an important part of its work in Haiti-- have already benefitted more than 750,000 Haitians.

Likely to draw on his Brazilian experience

His ambitious agenda, already underway, includes adapting his Brazilian experience with social protection instruments to the Haitian circumstances, in the hopes of bringing much-needed relief to those impacted by the earthquake.

Abrantes noted that Brazil's Bolsa Familia Conditional Cash Transfer program (CCT), which has helped more than 12 million families tackle poverty, is an interesting South-South cooperation model that he's hoping to apply in Haiti. CCT programs provide poor families with a basic income in exchange for their commitment to keeping their children in school and taking them to the doctor for regular checkups. Similar programs focusing on small children, such as Early Childhood Development initiatives, are being expanded in Haiti as part of the Bank's emergency response to the earthquake, he said.

"We are very good at things such as reestablishing social safety nets and I believe we can help our Haitian partners do that," Abrantes said, while adding that other programs being considered include a workforce initiative to create jobs and guarantee an income in these difficult circumstances.

Other plans, also drawing on Brazil's experience, include reinforcing the Haitian government's accountability by introducing transparent systems in procurement and financial management - all these initiatives that Haiti had already adopted but got disrupted after the earthquake.

To lay the foundations for this, the Bank has already begun helping rebuild the government's apparatus -such as its ability to collect and make payments- which sustained major damage following the disaster. The multiagency Post Disaster Needs Assessment report on Haiti's earthquake damages says that a "majority of ministerial and government buildings were destroyed as a result of the quake", which also claimed the lives of 30 percent of Haiti's senior civil servants. The value of destroyed physical assets - including housing units, schools, hospitals, buildings, roads and bridges, ports and airports - has been estimated at $4,302 million (55 percent of the total effects of the disaster).

Bank's good moral capital an advantage

Abrantes, a mild-mannered physician turned manager that projects confidence when he speaks, is convinced that all these lofty goals can be achieved because the Bank has a substantial moral capital that makes it trustworthy.

"The Bank is seen as a guardian of safeguards, it's a power broker that has the capacity to influence at several levels," he noted.

One of these levels -and quite an important one- is the seat he holds at the Trust Fund Steering Committee where the Bank has a role in ensuring that projects are aligned with the government's overall reconstruction strategy. The Bank also has oversight of financial decisions made, in its capacity as fiscal agent for the Multi Donor Trust Fund.

The Bank's expanded role in Haiti's reconstruction presents unique opportunities to lay the foundation for a new Haiti -more hazard-resilient and socially inclusive- but at the same time flags many challenges ahead, said Abrantes.

Some of the most salient challenges include coordinating with a large number of donors with competing agendas.

"It's quite a complex organizational arrangement, including the sovereign state of Haiti, with its operating capacity damaged by the recent catastrophe, so it requires some diplomatic skills," Abrantes conceded.

But diplomatic skills he has, and a tremendous amount of passion to carry out his job, which seem the right mix to tackle such a tall order.

"My mission now is to devote myself with all my heart and soul to Haiti," he concluded.