SECRETARY-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Mr. Edwin Carrington, yesterday challenged the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) to address the concerns of Haiti. In his view: “The question is vital. What contributions will COHSOD resolve to make in the reconstruction of Haiti and how and when?”
Carrington posed the challenge to delegates attending the 20th COHSOD meeting, which began at the Umana Yana, in Kingston, Georgetown, under the theme ‘Investing in Human Resources for the Benefit of All’.
The Council, comprising designated ministers of Member States, is responsible for the promotion of human and social development within the Community. 
The 19th COHSOD meeting received a summary report from the 21st Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government on the reconstruction of Haiti and noted the enormity of the Haitian crisis.
The compilation indicated, that up to then, 57 donors had pledged US$9.9 billion for the programme to reconstruct that country and CARICOM had put in place two major mechanisms to assist with the restoration.
They were the appointment of former Jamaica Prime Minister, Mr. P.J Patterson, as the CARICOM Advocate for Haiti and the establishment of a Special Support Unit for Haiti.
COHSOD agreed that Haiti should be treated as a sovereign State and, therefore, any assistance for its reconstruction and rehabilitation must be given with the understanding that it would be deployed in accordance with Haiti’s determination of its own priorities.
The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) has approved 18 more projects, bringing the total to 49, valued US$777M.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have sponsored several of the 18 projects.
The IDB has a US$474M project to reconstruct Haiti’s education sector for the benefit of some 250,000 children and another, for US$100M, to provide business development services to support small and medium size enterprises development.
UNICEF is sponsoring a US$10M undertaking to fight gender-based violence and another, valued US$25M, to support plans for improving local education infrastructure, clear debris from schools affected by the January earthquake, build semi-permanent learning facilities as well as 10 primary schools.
A UN report said progress has been made to move forward the political process to maintain security gains of the last few years and support the humanitarian and recovery efforts.
On Tuesday, January 12 last, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck and devastated Haiti and, since then, so far, there have been 59 aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from 4.2 to 5.9.