Interim Haiti Recovery Commission approves 29 rehabilitation projects for Haiti worth $1.6B

The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), led by Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive and former President Bill Clinton, recently announced more than $1.6 billion in projects to rebuild Haiti, "including a $200 million plan to create 50,000 new jobs in agriculture," Reuters reports. 

The IHRC "is tasked with determining which reconstruction projects are to receive backing from multibillion-dollar funding pledged by foreign donors" at a conference in March, the news service notes. "For the 29 project proposals unveiled on Tuesday totaling more than $1.6 billion, nearly $1 billion in funding had already been committed, commission officials said. Fully-funded projects included a $200 million agricultural development program that will increase overall farm income in targeted areas and create more than 50,000 sustainable jobs," Reuters reports. A U.N. rubble removal program, a back-to-school program and a teaching hospital for Haitian doctors and health workers were also approved (Delva, 8/17).

The IHRC said it would "back $220 million worth of U.N. projects," the U.N. News Centre writes. One of those projects is a $65 million infrastructure rehabilitation project, which will be led by the U.N. Development Programme. "The new project, which will be carried out in conjunction with the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is expected to provide temporary jobs for 300,000 people over the next 12 months," the news service writes. "Other initiatives include a World Health Organization (WHO) project that aims to boost access to health care, a food security project run by FAO, a U.N. agency effort to strengthen reproductive health services and a joint school feeding project of WFP, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Bank," according to U.N. News Centre (8/19).

"The Haitian Government also set specific goals to be reached by November in six priority areas: housing, education, debris removal, disaster preparedness, health and agriculture," according to a press release from IHRC. "The goals were announced by the commission at the board meeting and include the clearing of one million cubic meters of rubble in Port-au-Prince, and the construction of short-term cyclone shelters that will cover 400-500,000 people" (8/17).