Third, last year’s hurricanes blew a hole in the government’s budget. Now Haiti is facing a huge deficit which will make it harder for them to meet their own goals and the needs of their people. Their debt obligations further constrain their ability to lay the groundwork for the future. And fourth, agriculture – you heard the prime minister refer to it – once again, providing a strong agricultural base for the people of Haiti to become more self-sufficient, as well as to move toward reforestation as part of that agricultural initiative, will give Haiti tools for growth it desperately needs. Now on each of these issues, we will lend our assistance and we seek partners with other nations to maximize our collective impact.

First, security. As you heard, the Secretary General referred to Cité Soleil. It was a no-man’s land. Now there is a new sense of security and freedom in its streets. The Haitian National Police have been supported in their work by the UN peacekeeping operations. Those peacekeeping forces are more than half from Latin American and Caribbean countries. And with Brazil’s lead of determination and skill, there has been an upgrade in both police functions and basic security.

But criminal networks operating in Haiti have not been eliminated. They continue to fight drug traffickers who have made the country a transit point for illegal drugs heading to the United States, Canada and Europe. We will give $2 million to fight drug trafficking through the Merida Initiative, a plan conceived by Mexico, Central America and the United States. This money will fund a secure communications network for the Haitian police, provide a maritime base, vehicles, and operational support for police drug units, provide training to promote cross-border cooperation between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and sharpen the investigation and prosecution of drug crimes.

Once security is established, opportunity can take root, and nations from Canada to Spain to Japan offered generous assistance to help repair the damage from last year’s storms. But now is the time to take the step beyond – beyond peacekeeping and disaster relief to long-term reconstruction and development. Haiti has the highest unemployment rate in our hemisphere. Seventy percent of its people do not have jobs. It also has one of the region’s highest growth rates. Together, these trends have created what Paul Collier has called a youth tsunami. Nearly one million young people are expected to come into the job market in the next five years.

To spur the creation of jobs, the United States passed the HOPE Act of 2006 to give garments made in Haiti tariff-free access to U.S. markets. Last October, we did extend this trade preference for another decade. Apparel is one of the largest sectors in Haiti’s economy, and we see great possibility for job creation in this field, and we are especially gratified by Brazil’s interest in supporting the Haitian apparel industry.

But to build a diversified economy, Haiti needs more than trade deals. It needs an infrastructure to support the flow of goods and services. The roads in Haiti, for anyone who has ever visited, are beyond inadequate. Many communities are isolated, in the year 2009, by the lack of passable roads. That prevents people from holding jobs, children from going to schools, farmers from bringing crops to market. Better roads are essential.

Haiti also needs better roads and tourist areas to promote that sector of the economy. In addition, urgent infrastructure needs include digging water catchments to prevent floods, completing a garment workers training center, and creating canals to help irrigation. As part of the $287 million in nonemergency assistance we will provide Haiti this year, we have authorized $20 million in aid to generate jobs in building roads and infrastructure. And we know that there are other ways we can use this money, but we will be more effective if we coordinate together so that we are all working off the same page, the page of the recovery plan that the prime minister described.

Now even the most responsible government in the world cannot prevent a natural disaster. The hurricanes didn’t just wash away crops and houses. They washed away months of government planning. Haiti is facing an approximately $50 million budget deficit which could undermine its plans. We will provide $20 million to help pay Haiti’s upcoming debt service obligations and to free up other resources, and we invite other donors to join us in taking care of this budget deficit.

Now fourthly, there is an urgent need for sustainable agriculture and food security. The combined effects of rising food prices globally and the destruction of crops of hurricanes have exposed millions of Haitians to malnutrition and destructive effects on health and productivity. We all know the effect of malnourished people. They’re too weak to work. Children are too hungry to learn in school. So food security is not only a source of suffering; it is a direct threat to economic growth and global stability.

Here, we need to be creative. Now, the United States will provide a $15 million in-kind contribution of food to help Haiti as it rebuilds, but that is not an answer. We need to revitalize Haitian agriculture. We need to reforest the upper watersheds. We need to borrow from the intelligence of other nations to learn how, as we help rebuild Haiti, it can become more energy independent.

Brazil has shown the extraordinary energy efficiency of using sugar cane. What other crops could be used in Haiti? We know Haiti, like the Dominican Republic, have some of the windiest areas in our hemisphere. What more could be done to promote wind energy and solar energy? We are ready to partner with any of you who have such good ideas working with the Haitian Government. But think of the people we could put to work doing the work that Haiti needs.

Now, this work is not only a matter for governments, but it is a mission for the people of our country. I’ve heard from many individuals and groups who care deeply about Haiti, but they don’t know how to invest their time and money in a way to make a real impact. We will, through our government, help to create a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that the Haitian Diaspora and the United States can contribute to. And we will help coordinate other NGOs, particularly those that have been started by Haitian Americans who want to give back and are looking for the best way forward.

When I think about all of that eroded bare land that I see when I fly over Haiti – and I can always tell where the Dominican Republic starts, because that’s where the green starts – I think about what other countries have done to reforest. When our daughter was born, a dozen people paid to plant trees in Israel in her honor. Think of what we could do for individuals to pay to plant trees in Haiti, and then to pay Haitians to learn foresting techniques to nurture and grow those trees, and to come with alternatives to burning wood so people can be warm and cook their food. All of this is connected, and we’ve got to start making those connections working together.

Now, we know from empirical data that small investments go a long way, and I’ve seen this for myself in Haiti. In addition to traveling there as a newlywed, I traveled as First Lady. I traveled out into the country to meet a doctor who had emigrated to the United States, joined the United States Air Force, had become a colonel, but then wanted to give back to the country of his birth – return to Haiti to his hometown in Pignon, to run a center for health, women’s literacy and microcredit. They had few resources, but they offered a comprehensive range of services to thousands of clients.

I have visited a family planning clinic, one of the great urgent needs in Haiti, where young people were trained to educate their peers about how to protect their health and prevent teen pregnancy. And I have met with women from a group called Women in Democracy who had attended a global conference on women’s leadership that I helped to sponsor ten years ago in Montevideo. When they returned home, thanks to the Vital Voices network that they joined, they began to help support Haitian women running for office, who wanted to see a better life for their own families. Eleven years later, their organization is growing strong. They hold trade fairs for women entrepreneurs, run civic education programs to teach women their rights, support women journalists and build even more connections to the broader region. These Haitian women remind us of the resilience of the people of Haiti, but also that we will never achieve real progress unless we reach deep into Haitian society.

When I think of the successful Haitian Americans who serve in state legislatures and on city councils, who populate our hospitals as doctors and nurses from New York to Florida, who run businesses, who are creative entrepreneurs, there is no reason that could not have happened in Haiti. Talent is universal; opportunity is not. And it is our task through this donors conference to open the door of opportunity for Haitians and to send a message of what does occur through the power of collaboration.

Every poor nation that has worked hard to gain a foothold in the global economy that has been knocked off their footing is looking to see what we can do together. I’m confident that we will make not only significant pledges here, but we will match those pledges by our follow-up efforts and our coordination, and that we will demonstrate to ourselves as well as to the people of Haiti and far beyond that we can, working together, make a significant difference. Thank you all very much. (Applause.)