Building Back by Half? Gender Issues in IFI Investments in Post-Earthquake Haiti

On January 12, 2010, an earthquake struck Haiti west of its capital, Port-au-Prince, killing over 200,000 and causing an estimated US$ 8 billion in damages. Promising to “build back better”, bilateral and multilateral donors including International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have pledged over US$ 13 billion to the humanitarian and reconstruction efforts to date.

Few reports assessing the effectiveness of this donor funding to Haiti have paid attention to the impacts of IFI spending or the extent to which donor funding addresses gender inequalities or the needs of Haitian women. Haitian women were disproportionately affected by the earthquake. Haiti will not make a full recovery unless women’s needs and concerns are addressed.

This Gender Action report assesses the extent to which the investments of the two most significant IFI donors to Haiti, the World Bank (WB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), respond to the needs of Haitian women.

Read the full report here: http://www.genderaction.org/publications/buildingbackbyhalf.pdf