FACTBOX-Major problems in Haiti reconstruction efforts

For Haiti quake anniversary story, click on [ID:nN09259805]

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan 9 (Reuters) - No one disputes that the 7.0 magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12 2010, devastated Haiti's capital and created one of the most complex and challenging humanitarian and reconstruction tasks ever faced by the international aid community.

But there is considerable debate about just how effective that international assistance has been and how it can be improved to help Haiti recover from the disaster.

Following are some of the critical sectors of the international relief operation in Haiti over the last year.

THE INITIAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Rescue, medical and relief workers from around the globe began pouring into Haiti hours after the earthquake struck. Experts say well over ${esc.dollar}1 billion was quickly raised for the emergency response in what British charity Oxfam calls "unprecedented generosity" shown by the world for Haiti.

Wile sharply critical of other aspects of the international operation in which it is participating, Oxfam says this response saved countless lives by providing water, sanitation, shelter, food aid, and other vital assistance to millions.

U.N. figures show around 4 million people received food assistance, emergency shelter materials were delivered to 1.5 million, safe water was distributed to more than a million, while a million more benefited from cash for work programs.

The U.N. World Food Program continues to help close to two million Haitians with school meals, nutrition and cash-and-food-for work programs. No starvation conditions or hunger deaths have been reported.

But with the immediate emergency now over, it is recovery and reconstruction that is proving much more problematic.

AID COORDINATION

This is one of the most criticized aspects of the humanitarian operation in Haiti -- not surprising given that the response has brought together a weakened and struggling Haitian government, an alphabet soup of U.N. agencies, other governments from around the world and an army of private charities that some estimate at more than 10,000.

Some humanitarian groups have described the coordination of the relief operation as "a mess", not least because out of the thousands of charities working in Haiti, only 450 are formally registered with the government and only 150 regularly send reports to the planning ministry as required by law.

Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive often complains that many charities in Haiti bypass the government in their operations, some of them offering no reporting or accountability at all.

Pamela cox, the World Bank's vice president for Latin America and the Caribbean, says coordinating all of the aid operations in Haiti is "like herding cats sometimes".

Before leaving Haiti late last year, the former Organization of American States (OAS) representative Ricardo Seitenfus accused some humanitarian organizations of using the country as a "laboratory" and an opportunity to "do business".

While faulting what it called "rampant bilateralism" by some donors, Oxfam also criticized the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) co-chaired by former U.S. President Bill Clinton and Haitian premier Bellerive, saying it had failed to live up to its mandate to help coordinate reconstruction.

In a miffed response, the IHRC said Oxfam had "misinterpreted -- and misrepresented" its mission.

DEBRIS REMOVAL AND RESETTLEMENT

Visitors to the sprawling wrecked capital Port-au-Prince following the quake may be surprised by the amount of rubble still visible, given the reported size and funding of the internationally-backed recovery operation.

Post-disaster assessments said 105,000 homes were destroyed and 208,000 were damaged, creating what experts have estimated as at least 20 million cubic meters of rubble, probably more. Oxfam says that is enough to stretch more than halfway around the world if placed in dump trucks parked bumper to bumper.

Citing the Haitian government, Oxfam says only five percent of the rubble has been cleared so far, although most of the capital's main arteries are now free for traffic. Donors provided funds for transitional housing but very little for clearing rubble and repairing homes.

"People say 'debris, debris, why can't they get the debris out'. It's like a snow storm, there's only so much you can do each day," said the World Bank's Cox. She says the task is so enormous that technical experts argue that even with the resources available, only 40 percent of the debris can be removed from the crowded capital by October.

Equally, progress in resettling and rehousing the more than 1.3 million homeless originally forced to seek shelter in 1,300 tent and tarpaulin camps has been described as painfully slow.

Oxfam reports that few damaged houses have been repaired and only 15 percent of the basic and temporary new housing required has yet been built.

But the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says its latest assessment found that the number of Haitians living in displacement camps had dropped by almost half since July -- to 810,000.

FUNDING RECONSTRUCTION

According to the World Bank, damages and losses from the Haitian earthquake were evaluated at ${esc.dollar}7.9 billion, although estimates from other sources have given higher figures.

At a major donors' conference in New York in March 31, 2010, donors pledged ${esc.dollar}5.3 billion to support Haiti's reconstruction and development in 2010-2011, and nearly ${esc.dollar}11 billion for the next five years.

The World Bank's Cox says almost half of the ${esc.dollar}5.3 billion -- about ${esc.dollar}2.6 billion -- has been approved in donors' budgets, while a separate Bank document said ${esc.dollar}1.2 billion had been actually disbursed to date for program support.

Cox says pressure should be kept on bilateral donors "who promised more resources and have not delivered them yet".

The World Bank says that out of its own pledge of ${esc.dollar}479 million made in March 2010, two thirds of this had been allocated. The Bank is trustee of the Haiti Reconstruction Fund, a multi-donor trust fund that has so far raised ${esc.dollar}267 million, of which ${esc.dollar}193 million has been allocated.

Following the outbreak of the deadly cholera epidemic in mid-October, the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs complained that its specific ${esc.dollar}174 million cholera appeal was underfunded.

While Haitian media have published government preliminary estimates showing Haiti's economic contraction this year as a result of the quake may be less than originally feared -- 5.1 percent rather than 8.5 percent -- experts say a huge amount remains to be done to create jobs and promote investment.

"We need to think about getting money down into the communities to produce jobs for people because that's the only way people are going to get on their feet economically. We'd like to see more of a 'pull' policy being generated around getting people out of the camps - markets, jobs, healthcare, clean water, stable housing etc," said Ted Constan, chief program officer of Boston-based Partners In Health. (Reporting by Pascal Fletcher in Miami; Editing by Kieran Murray)