The early arrival of the rainy season in Haiti prompted representatives of the European Union, the United States and the United Nations attending the informal Development Council in La Granja, Segovia, on 17 and 18 February, to agree to provide one million Haitians with emergency weather-proof shelters. The storm season, which usually hits in March, has already started in the earthquake-stricken country, where 1.5 million people were left homeless by the 12 January disaster. Soraya Rodríguez, the Spanish secretary of state for international cooperation who chaired the informal meeting of development ministers, said that “immediate action must be taken to relocate these people as soon as possible”. The EU announced, on 12 February, an additional €90 million to stop a “second-wave” disaster in Haiti during the rainy season (see Europolitics3918).

The delegates also pledged to speed up efforts to clear rubble and stabilise existing structures. The meetings were also attended by Rajiv Shah, the administrator of USAID, Edmond Mulet, the UN’s special representative in Haiti and the UN’s assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, and the European Commissioner for Development, Andris Piebalgs.

Humanitarian aid targets, which make up 0.7% of GDP of the EU, can still be met within the next five years despite the financial crisis, Rodríguez added. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, however, will mean moving “from words to actions”, she said. “We must strengthen efforts to meet these targets and evaluate the large vacuums around some of the goals,” she concluded. The MDGs include eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, progress towards universal primary education, gender equality and reduction of child mortality.