Rebuilding Haiti: Lessons from Post‐Conflict Experiences
| Date | 01 February 2012 |
| Author | Piergiuseppe Fortunato,Richard Kozul‐Wright,Igor Paunovic |
| Published date | 01 February 2012 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00107.x |
Rebuilding Haiti: Lessons from
Post-Conflict Experiences
Richard Kozul-Wright,
Piergiuseppe Fortunato and
Igor Paunovic
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Abstract
The earthquake that struck Haiti in January 2010 tipped the country into a state of socioeconomic despair from which
it will be difficult to escape without a fresh start, made not only by its own political and economic elites, but also by
the international community. Making a fresh start will require an honest assessment of Haiti’s predicament and a bold
vision of its future prospects. By this, lessons can usefully be drawn from the experiences of countries emerging from
a period of conflict. From this perspective, Haiti needs to move beyond the neoliberal consensus which has
dominated policy since the overthrow of the Duvalier regime and adopt a more integrated policy approach to
creating jobs, boosting economic security, diversifying economic activity and repairing a dangerously frayed social
contract. Such an approach critically depends on establishing a developmental state with an inclusive national agenda
that can move Haiti out of an initial and unavoidable state of aid dependence to effective mobilization of domestic
resources. For the international community, the Marshall Plan offers useful lessons in forging a more effective
development partnership to support such a state-building exercise and the efforts at recovery and rebuilding.
Policy Implications
•State building is an integral part of development policy in countries adjusting to large external shocks.
•It is a mistake to privilege a set of predetermined policy instruments to be used to manage the adjustment to
external shocks, regardless of actual circumstances.
•Mobilizing domestic resources is key to sustainable long-term growth and development, including in countries
recovering from crisis.
•Distributional issues are an integral part of successful strategies to improve domestic resource mobilization.
•Avoiding dual public sectors is essential for effective state building in countries receiving large aid inflows.
•The Marshall Plan continues to hold lessons for how the international community should behave towards countries
recovering from large shocks and crises.
Even in the best of times, Haiti has been a country
whose ‘open veins’ and kleptocratic mismanagement
have led to the squandering of local resources and a
persistent vulnerability to economic shocks, which have
triggered vicious cycles of decline, indebtedness and
extreme deprivation. The earthquake in January 2010
was, however, of a different order of magnitude from
previous shocks. Coming on top of three decades of
regressive development, during which incomes
stagnated and more than a million Haitians left their
homeland, the shock tipped Haiti into a state of
socioeconomic despair from which it will be difficult to
escape without a fresh start, made not only by its own
political and economic elites, but also by the interna-
tional community.
The earthquake has, notably in the Action Plan for
Haiti presented at the United Nations in March 2010,
been seen as an opportunity to break with the past.
While other crises have also been described in similar
terms, the sheer magnitude of the catastrophe, the
exposure of past policy failures and the scale of
resources needed to rebuild the country suggest that
Global Policy Volume 3 . Issue 1 . February 2012
Global Policy (2012) 3:1 doi: 10.1111/j.1758-5899.2011.00107.x ª2011 London School of Economics and Political Science and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Research Article
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