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by pltm
(PLTM) - Haiti, the Caribbean country regarded as the poorest in the western hemisphere, has pledged US$250,000 to assist its Caribbean neighbours that were ravaged by hurricanes Irma and Maria in September.
The country’s leader made the pledge at the recently concluded CARICOM-UN Pledge Conference held in New York.
Haiti’s pledge is a share of over $1.3 billion in pledges and more than $1 billion in loans and debt relief that the international community made to help Caribbean nations, including the BVI.
It not yet clear whether the funds have already been transferred by the French-speaking nation, but according to information published by the UN, Haiti is the only Caribbean country that pledged funds to those affected by the two categories five hurricanes.
The pledge is also commendable, because Haiti was also impacted by both hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Furthermore, Haiti, which has a population of over 10 million, has close to 60% of the population living under the national poverty line (US CIA Factbook).
Haiti is also still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Matthew, which made landfall on the 4th of October 2016, affecting an estimated 2.1 million people.
Haiti was not the biggest donor at the pledge conference, but if the funds are transferred, it would assist the Caribbean countries hit by both hurricanes and now have recovery costs estimated at over $5 billion.
The largest pledges at the conference were made by the Netherlands ($702-million), The European Union ($352-million) and the World Bank ($140-million).
See the amounts pledged by each country below.
Estimated Amounts In US$:
$702-million from The Netherlands; $352-million from the European Union; $140-million from the World Bank; $78-million from Canada; $30-million from China; $27-million from Mexico; $12-million from Italy; $4.3-million from the United States; $4-million from Japan; $1-million from Kuwait; $2-million from India; $1-million from Venezuela; $1.2-million from Belgium; $1-million from Chile; $500,000 from Denmark; $300,000 from Colombia; $250,000 from Haiti; $250,000 from New Zealand; $200,000 from Brazil; $150,000 from Kazakhstan; $100,000 from Romania; $100,000 from Portugal; $20,000 from Serbia.
