Haiti needs debt relief as well as crisis intervention.  At yesterday’s Financial Services Committee hearing regarding the 15th Replenishment of the International Development Association’s funds, I spoke about the urgent need to address the ongoing food crisis in Haiti.  In Haiti, unlike in the United States, there are five seasons.  Haiti has the traditional four seasons and also has a hunger season, when it is known that many people will suffer and even die from a lack of food.  Haiti is just a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida, and yet three-quarters of its population live on less than $2 per day.  Our government, along with governments and institutions around the world, has expanded aid to Haiti in response to the impacts of the food crisis there, but we must continue to devote additional attention to the problem and ensure that Haiti is able to use its additional resources to help the hungry, rather than to service debt payments.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 9:48 am and is filed under Politics .