Healing Haiti

THE response to the call to help Haiti rebuild, expressed this month at an international donors' conference in New York - jointly hosted by the United Nations and the United States - was a credit to the continuing generosity of the world in the face of need.

Haiti is a wreck. It is the poorest country in the hemisphere. Part of its lamentable state is the result of the devastating earthquake that hit it in January. Now it faces the rainy season, which could produce floods. The other element in its current prone state is neglect and misgovernance by its leaders over a long period.

Donors responded to Haiti's need dramatically. The United Nations has estimated that Haiti will need $11.5 billion to rebuild and to get on a sound course for the future, including precautions to deal with further earthquakes. Haiti's government's own estimate of its shorter-term needs was $3.9 billion.

The New York conference achieved immediate pledges of $5.3 billion, surpassing Haiti's estimate of its initial needs by more than $1 billion. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was there to lead the way, as well as her husband, former president Bill Clinton, who is the U.N. special envoy to the country. The United States has promised more than $2 billion.

There are problems. The first of them is on the part of the donors. Big pledges are one thing; delivery of the money in a timely fashion is another, including for the United States. To meet the U.S. pledge, it will be necessary for the Obama Administration to squeeze it out of the current aid budget, or to obtain a special authorization of spending from the current fractious Congress.

The second problem is Haiti itself. In spite of affirmations from representatives of the Obama Administration, how the rebuilding of Haiti is planned and executed cannot be left entirely to the desires of the Haitian government. It, too, is in some chaos, partly by its nature and partly as a result of the tragic earthquake. Whether anyone likes to say so or not, Haiti's leaders over the years are notorious for corruption.

The Haitian people and the American people who will be putting up the money for the rebuilding of the country will need to be assured - guaranteed - that money for fixing Haiti does not end up enriching corrupt leaders. Both Haitians and Americans deserve that pledge.