The conference — sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank — will consider a two-year economic recovery plan developed by the government of Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, bank spokesman Pablo Bachelet said.
The plan emerged after Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — uncharacteristically enjoyed three consecutive years of economic growth and improved stability.
That growth was interrupted last year, however, by four major tropical storms and spikes in food and fuel prices.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog, warned last month that deepening poverty and ineffective governance left Haiti at risk for renewed violence and political instability.
The group urged international donors to provide US$3 billion over the next several years to revitalize Haiti’s economy, reduce vulnerability to natural disasters and maintain access to basic services, among other things.
In addition to regular donor countries, Bachelet said, “nontraditional donors,” such as countries in the Persian Gulf area, are expected to attend.
Many of those invited already are working in Haiti, but Bachelet said the conference aimed to ensure projects “align more forcefully with the country’s priorities as outlined in the two-year plan.”
Among those attending the conference are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and representatives of countries including Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Former US president Bill Clinton, representing his personal foundation, and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, representing his Open Society Institute, will also attend the conference.
More than 30 donor countries and international organizations were to consider ways to build on signs of recovery in Haiti at a conference in Washington yesterday.
The conference — sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank — will consider a two-year economic recovery plan developed by the government of Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis, bank spokesman Pablo Bachelet said.
The plan emerged after Haiti — the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — uncharacteristically enjoyed three consecutive years of economic growth and improved stability.
That growth was interrupted last year, however, by four major tropical storms and spikes in food and fuel prices.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a conflict watchdog, warned last month that deepening poverty and ineffective governance left Haiti at risk for renewed violence and political instability.
The group urged international donors to provide US$3 billion over the next several years to revitalize Haiti’s economy, reduce vulnerability to natural disasters and maintain access to basic services, among other things.
In addition to regular donor countries, Bachelet said, “nontraditional donors,” such as countries in the Persian Gulf area, are expected to attend.
Many of those invited already are working in Haiti, but Bachelet said the conference aimed to ensure projects “align more forcefully with the country’s priorities as outlined in the two-year plan.”
Among those attending the conference are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and representatives of countries including Canada, France, Spain, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Former US president Bill Clinton, representing his personal foundation, and billionaire philanthropist George Soros, representing his Open Society Institute, will also attend the conference.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of