UN News Cen­tre on ReliefWeb

Eight months after the cat­a­strophic earth­quake, Haiti has fended off a second-wave dis­as­ter of epi­demics and unrest, but the impov­er­ished nation’s polit­i­cal, social and eco­nomic sit­u­a­tion will remain frag­ile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says in a new report.

“It is to the great credit of the Hait­ian peo­ple that large-scale dis­tur­bances have so far been avoided despite the extremely harsh and pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions of so many,” he writes in the report to the Secu­rity Coun­cil made pub­lic today.

The Hait­ian Gov­ern­ment esti­mates that 1.3 mil­lion peo­ple are still uprooted fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing Jan­u­ary earth­quake. It is esti­mated that hun­dreds of thou­sands will still be in camps or impro­vised shel­ters over the com­ing year.

The Secretary-General cau­tions that the poten­tial for social unrest exists, under­scor­ing that debris removal and advanc­ing recon­struc­tion efforts is imperative.

“Haiti is now enter­ing a period of change which will be crit­i­cal to its future sta­bil­ity. The most imme­di­ate chal­lenge, besides recon­struc­tion, is the orga­ni­za­tion of pres­i­den­tial and leg­isla­tive elec­tions,” he notes.

Those polls, set to take place on 28 Novem­ber, must be cred­i­ble and legit­i­mate so that they usher in a pres­i­dent and gov­ern­ment “with a clear and uncon­tested man­date” to lead the recon­struc­tion process, Mr. Ban writes, voic­ing hope that many Haitians will cast their bal­lot in the elections.

“Polit­i­cal sta­bil­ity will be essen­tial for recov­ery and the resump­tion of socio-economic devel­op­ment,” he stresses, urg­ing the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to deliver on its com­mit­ments to sup­port the polls.

For its part, the United Nations peace­keep­ing mis­sion, known as MINUSTAH, will con­tinue its sup­port, includ­ing in the poten­tially volatile post-election period.

Other impor­tant polit­i­cal tasks, the Secretary-General points out, include com­plet­ing the con­sti­tu­tional reform process ini­ti­ated by Pres­i­dent René Préval’s Gov­ern­ment, which seeks to sim­plify the elec­toral cycle and boost the diaspora’s eco­nomic participation.

He also cites the need to reset­tle those dis­placed by the quake, under­scor­ing the need for deci­sive lead­er­ship to resolve com­plex issues related to land, prop­erty and rental rights.

“A bal­ance will also need to be struck between the pro­vi­sion of essen­tial ser­vices for the dis­placed pop­u­la­tion, and the need to encour­age camp res­i­dents to return to their com­mu­ni­ties and neigh­bour­hoods of ori­gin,” the report says.

“Even before 12 Jan­u­ary, a sig­nif­i­cant num­ber of the dis­placed were liv­ing in con­di­tions com­pa­ra­ble to, and in many cases worse than, those in the camps,” it notes.

There­fore, Mr. Ban says, there must be incen­tives for returns through the pro­vi­sion of ade­quate shel­ter and basic ser­vices, as well as the estab­lish­ment of a pro­tec­tive envi­ron­ment, espe­cially for women and children.

“With over a mil­lion dis­placed cur­rently liv­ing in makeshift con­di­tions, and the risk of tran­si­tional shel­ters evolv­ing into a ‘new gen­er­a­tion’ of slums, there is a con­tin­u­ing need for a clear, con­sid­ered and com­pre­hen­sive strat­egy for the reset­tle­ment of earth­quake vic­tims and the urban poor,” he writes.

The new pub­li­ca­tion also high­lights the impor­tance of donors and oth­ers main­tain­ing their sup­port for Haiti, even as media inter­est in the coun­try wanes.

“Rebuild­ing Haiti will be a long-term project,” the Secretary-General under­scores. “It will require deci­sive lead­er­ship on the part of the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti, with the sus­tained sup­port of the inter­na­tional community.”

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/VDUX-894TVU?OpenDocument