AS/COA Online | UN Haiti Conference Exceeds Funding Expectations
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Reconstruction in Haiti. (DoD photo: U.S. Navy Photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Joan E. Kretschmer)A UN donor conference aimed at raising funds to help rebuild a devastated Haiti showed that countries around the globe are willing to put their money where there mouth is. With more than 150 countries and organizations represented at the March 31 conference at the UN’s New York headquarters, pledging almost $10 billion in short and long-term aid. The $5.3 billion committed to help cover rebuilding costs for the next two years exceeded the Haitian government’s request by 1.4 billion. But some have made the point that it will take more than cash to reconstruct Haiti after the January 12 earthquake that claimed roughly 220,000 lives and ravaged infrastructure in Port-au-Prince. “You can have all the pledges in the world, but you must be able to implement,” said the Inter-American Development Bank’s Luis Alberto Moreno.