New York, Jan 27 (DPA) The UN is studying the “best mechanism” to fund the reconstruction of Haiti following the destructive earthquake of Jan 12, UN officials said Tuesday.
Technical experts from various international financial institutions and the UN have already begun what is known as the post-disaster needs assessment to work out a list of initial demands for the international donor conference scheduled to take place in New

York in late March.

The Haitian government has estimated it will take at least $3 billion over ten years to restore the country to functioning. The president of Haiti’s neighbour, the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, has put the costs at $10 billion over the same time period.

At an international conference Monday in Montreal, 20 countries pledged to “stand with Haiti for the long term,” saying an initial 10-year commitment was “essential.”

At the conference, the Haitian government asked the UN to make a more exact assessment of the costs and time period, said Jordan Ryan, a director of the crisis prevention department and development programme at UN headquarters in New York.

The team of technical experts from the World Bank, the American Development Bank, the European Commission and the UN will be on the ground in Haiti on February 9 to begin the post-disaster need assessment, Ryan said.