IDB announces record disbursements of $176 million for Haiti in 2010

Dec. 23, 2010 — The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) disbursed a record $176 million in grants to Haiti in 2010, including outlays for school reconstruction, budget support and other basic services devastated by the earthquake. The IDB’s disbursements were the most of any multilateral source of assistance to Haiti since its tragic earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010.

In addition to this record amount, the IDB in the coming weeks will disburse a $15 million emergency grant to help Haiti fight cholera, which was approved on Dec. 15 by the IDB’s Board of Executive Directors. The Bank’s anti-cholera operation is coupled with a $5 million donation from Spain for a total grant of $20 million.

The IDB disbursed $132 million in 2009.

The IDB also provided non-reimbursable technical cooperation grants for $6.5 million, including $1.5 million for improving child survival and for social safety nets programs. Haiti obtained a further $17 million in disbursements from the Canadian government, the EU and OPEC through IDB-run projects. All together, IDB grants, technical cooperation grants and third-party disbursements add up to $ 199.5 million for Haiti through a variety of IDB mechanisms.

“These resources show the IDB and its member countries are making a concerted effort to help Haiti amid the worst disaster to strike a country in modern times. We are grateful to our shareholders for their support,” said IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno. “Given the magnitude of the devastation, money alone will not get the job done. Looking ahead, we have also increased our full-time staff working exclusively on Haiti to nearly 50, putting us in a strong position to carry out our ambitious investment program.”

The record disbursements come as the IDB has approved an unprecedented $251 million in grants for Haiti in 2010, compared with $122 million in 2009. The high approval levels herald potentially bigger disbursements in 2011.

In addition to its unprecedented disbursal of grants, in 2010 the IDB agreed to cancel Haiti’s pending debt of $484 million to the IDB, and converted undisbursed loan balances of $144 million into grants. Since 2007, Haiti has received only grants from the IDB, the largest multilateral donor to Haiti.

Going forward, as part of the Ninth General Capital Increase (GCI-9) the IDB has pledged to provide $200 million in grants annually to Haiti through 2020, plus an additional one-time allotment from the Fund for Special Operations of $137 million. This brings the total support to the country through 2020 to over $2.3 billion for the country’s reconstruction and development. Prior to the earthquake, in 2009 Haiti received approvals for $122 million.

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