Haiti Earthquake Response

As the world comes to the aid of Haiti in the wake of the terrible January 12th earthquake, many are left wondering if there is more that can be done. Short-term help is certainly necessary. But long-term help is just as crucial if Haiti is to rebuild after this crisis. What can be done?

One important thing can be done: forgive Haiti's debt. Since the slave revolt in Napoleonic times, Haiti has been saddled with debt that has taken valuable resources away from its infrastructure needs. Only in 1947 was this debt paid off in full.

The corruption of political leaders has played its part in Haiti's debt crisis also. "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvalier racked up huge amounts of multilateral and bilateral debt, mostly stuffing their own pockets with these funds, leaving little to help the Haitian people. Much of this debt remained until the summer of 2009.

Servicing this debt cost Haiti over $50 million each year. That's millions that could not go toward the governance that Haitians desperately needed. The excesses of the Duvaliers and the corruption of later governments continued to break the backs of the Haitian people years after their regimes.

In 2009 in International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World bank forgave $1.2 billion of Haiti's $1.9B in aggregate debt. This freed up $50 million per year, money that can be now be used to better the Haitian people's lives.

Now it is time to finish the job. Since the earthquake the Paris Club, a group of lender nations, has called for the forgiveness of Haiti's debt and made pledges to do just that. Because of Haiti's completion of the Highly Indebted Poorer Nations (HIPC) requirements the international community is confident that necessary action has been taken to clean up corruption in Haiti's government.

Our petition, then, calls upon the world community to do what we believe it is already motivated to do: give a strong, long-term boost to Haiti's redevelopment by forgiving its remaining debt and making all future aid in the form of grants, not loans.

This petition will be publicized in the media and delivered, with all its signatures, to President Obama. Please consider adding your signature to this document and telling others about it. And if you have not done so already, please make a monetary gift to a charity providing direct relief to the people of Haiti.