During his visit to Miami on Monday, President-elect of Haiti, Michel Martelly, asked the Haitian diaspora to support free primary education in Haiti through a levy on money transfers and phone calls.

Nearly four million Haitians live outside the country and form the diaspora, nearly half in North America, the money that the diaspora sends in the country reached $1.8 billion, or nearly 25% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Haiti.

Martelly President told reporters that he intended to create a fund to finance free primary education in Haiti, he intends to release each year 50 million dollars for education "Education is the future of Haiti [...] Let's say that you send 100 dollars from Miami to Haiti. You will contribute one dollar directly into the education fund to pay for schooling, transport, and one meal per day for more than 500,000 children aged 6-12 that currently do not have access to school."

Moreover, Michel Martelly indicated that he had agreed with the telephone operators in Haiti, so that, for each minute of call from the United States to Haiti, USD$0,05 are collected and put in this same fund "This would bring in an additional $36 million a year, which would pay for an additional 360,000 children."

Combined with the Project of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), who is committed, on October 6, 2010, to the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) under the name "PROJET 4 : Reconstruction of the education sector (SE)", to providing $250 million over 5 years (same sum to find), this project of fund for education, financed by the diaspora could be a significant additional funding to help to initiate more quickly, the election promises of the elected President. This would be undoubtedly a future way to consider for financing free education, when donor countries will be withdrawn and that Haiti will have to assume alone these costs.

Learn more about the project "Reconstruction of the education sector (SE)" :

Executing agency : Inter-American Development Bank
Financial partner : Inter-American Development Bank
Total cost : $474.0M
Amount of financing : $225.0M
Start Date : Octobre 2010
Duration : 5 years

Project Description:
The project will support the education sector by: 1) strengthening the educational infrastructure; 2) providing educational kits and developing programs; 3) contributing to the training of teachers; 4) intensifying technical and vocational training; 5) funding grants to public education for preschool and basic education students (1st through 9th grade); 6) strengthening the management and governance of sector.

General Comments
The project is entirely consistent with the government's plan for education. It should pay particular attention to the creation of the capacity of implementation with partners to ensure that they can achieve such an ambitious project. It is essential that the project can evaluate the budgetary impact in the long term of the support of program once the project is done to ensure that the government is aware of its budgetary implications of project and be able to take control after five years.

Article by HL/ HaitiLibre