The governments of Argentina and France, co-chairs of the conference, and 53 delegations representing international organizations and donor countries involved in the process of reconstruction and development of Haiti have contributed to drawing up an aid program aimed at urgently reinforcing food security and rural development in Haiti, and have committed themselves to holding a top-level meeting as soon as possible in order to set in motion the joint aid program, aimed at the most vulnerable population, which has been agreed during today’s conference.

The conclusions document, adopted by the meeting participants, highlights the commitment of both donor countries and international organizations towards development in Haiti, particularly considering the problems generated by the soaring food prices and food insecurity affecting the most vulnerable populations.

In view of this situation, the participants have resolved to respond in the short, medium and long run to the needs of the population by implementing programs and measures which will allow to ensure food assistance for the population, reaffirm food security, reinforce nutrition and reactivate agricultural and rural production rapidly by means of investments to promote structural and sustainable changes.

In order to ensure that these actions are set in motion, all the participants have agreed to carry on working to improve coordination and monitoring mechanisms in order to improve aid efficiency.

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/LSGZ-7GLHM2?OpenDocument

The Haitian government has cut petrol subsidies, pushing the price of fuel up after the government redirected money to other programs.

The subsidies had been implemented by Rene Preval, the president, to prevent instability after April riots over the high cost of food that left at least seven dead.

Prices immediately rose by 80 cents-per-gallon to $6.14, a huge increase in a country where people live on less than two dollars a day.

The government, which is short of funds, said it could not afford assistance that had amounted to an estimated US$15 million over three months, while attempting to combat the ongoing food crisis.

Global issue

Kesner Pharel, a Haitian economist, said Preval could “pay some political price” for allowing the increases, which were announced on Thursday.

“It’s a difficult choice but…if you keep losing money like that you have a price to pay in the medium and long term,” Pharel said.

Port-au-Prince’s public taxis, or “tap-taps,” raised fares to cope with rising fuel costs, prompting arguments with passengers.

“The passengers don’t want to pay. We have to fight with them,” said Molier Benoit, whose syndicate doubled its fares to 12 gourdes (31 cents) for a ride in a metal frame built onto the back of a truck.

Rising fuel costs have strained economies and spurred protests around the world, prompting Saudi Arabia, the world’s leading oil producer, to pledge to increase output at a meeting between producer and consumer nations last week.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/06/2008627233814418599.html

In the deserpate of cirumstances i guess anybody will do anything to survive. As you know Haiti is an extremely poor country that is slowly on its way to killing its own people. I just finished readng an article in which during a five-month long investigation, ABC News’ Dan Harris uncovered disturbing evidence of modern-day slavery. Child slavery is against the law in Haiti, but an estimated 300,000 children there are forced to become domestic laborers

“I don’t think they don’t love them,” he said. “They love them but because they think they cannot take care of them so they just turn them over to another person and the other person ensures them that they will take care of the child. But when the child gets into the house they do not keep their promises.” http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/404964.aspx

Trafficing and slavery is not only hapening in Haiti but in many countries around the world inculding the United States. This is an epedemic that makes me sick. Children are not for sale and should never considered less than human. These children are being robbed of their childhood and being exposed an corrupted to the most horrible of things. It is unfair and cruel to allow this many children to be subjected to slavery. The United States did so much to ban slavery, that we sometimes forget tat the rest of the world has not yet caught up.

In the frontline news clip i feel that Colin Powell’s influence with the Iraq conflict and his experience in and witht the war has guided him to think and convey in, that containment would be a success with Iraq but Wolfowitz believed in preemption. The Presidents who dealt with Iraq used the United Stated as its influence through out the world. Iraq’s containment was not going according to plan due to the fact that Saddam would continue to find new tools and resources to battle the idea.  There is an us and a them like everything…and Bush makes the distinction between the two. This video has a set view on Colin Powell and i dont think is the most accurate. I feel that within politics everyone is bias and it is hard to portray something totally equal.

WFP is rapidly expanding operations in Haiti, reaching more hungry people thanks to a US$23 million allocation from funds raised through the organisation’s high food price appeal.

In the months ahead, more and more people will receive food assistance – 2.3 million by the end of the year. “Our food is critical to helping people cope with high prices – a daily burden on people who were already very poor,” said WFP Regional Director Pedro Medrano.

WFP family food rations allow hope to return to households struggling to make ends meet and which buy less and less food as food prices increase. Beneficiaries receive a basket of food that will feed their family for one month.

Better access to food for the most hungry will also help stabilize Haitian society, which was rocked by fatal food riots earlier this year. The Haitian population is highly vulnerable to food price increases: Haiti imports over 50 percent of its food including rice — its staple diet; three-quarters of Haitians live on less than US$2 per day. Households spend more than half their incomes on food.

Donors to WFP operations in Haiti include: the United States (US$ 23.3 million); Canada (US$ 19.8 million), France (US$ 3.7 million), UN Central Emergency Revolving Fund –CERF (US$ 3.3 million), Switzerland (US$ 1.4 million) and several others. Overall they have provided more than US$ 62 million, which is enough to cover augmented needs for 2008. However, WFP still needs more than US$ 61 million to cover Haitian beneficiaries’ needs for 2009.