Mennonite Weekly Review

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Mennonite Central Committee is considering the place of God’s peace in rebuilding Haitian lives and infrastructure after the Jan. 12 earthquake.

People view their collapsed homes in Nerettes, a neighborhood on the edge of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. — Photo by Ben Depp /MCC

As MCC provides immediate emergency support and plans for medium- and long-term efforts, we are working toward the holistic well-being of communities.

That commitment stems from God’s vision of peace and dignity for humanity.

This vision holds as central human rights such as access to food, health care, security and education.

It also underscores the necessity of justice for the vision to be fulfilled, and the importance of human empowerment.

To understand the strategies needed for Haiti’s construction, it is appropriate to consider the obstacles this country has experienced. Natural disasters are beyond human control, but Haiti’s vulnerability to their consequences is human-made. There is nothing natural about poverty, hunger and political unrest.

Poverty. For centuries Haiti has been under the heel of external economic policies that exacerbate poverty. After Haiti gained independence from France in 1804, France forced an exorbitant debt of 150 million francs (the equivalent of $21 billion U.S. today) on the population. More recent structural adjustment policies and conditions on foreign aid have contributed to economic hardship as well.

Until June 2009, Haiti was paying $56 million to $70 million a year to service debts to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Close to 45 percent of that debt was incurred during the U.S.-backed Duvalier dictatorships (1957-1986). Until the forgiveness of $1.2 billion of Haiti’s foreign debt by the IMF and the World Bank last year, the government annually spent $4 per person on health care and $5 per person on education, while paying $5 per person in debt service.

Hunger. Until 1985, Haiti was self-sufficient in production of rice, a staple in the Haitian diet. Under the tutelage of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF, Haiti liberalized its economic policies, opening the door to foreign exports, such as rice.

In 1994 conditions on foreign aid to the country and the reinstatement of ousted President Bertrand Aristide by the U.S. chiseled Haiti’s import tariffs on rice from 35 percent to 3 percent, the lowest in the region.