Weekly Report - 1 July 2010 (WR-10-26)

President René Préval needs to “take a more visible and active role" in the reconstruction of Haiti after January's devastating earthquake. That was the damning verdict of a report compiled by the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee released last week. The report concluded that Haiti was at “a significant crossroads" and that the government's procrastination meant that “the sense of urgency [and] commitment to prevent a return to the dysfunctional, unsustainable ways of life past" had “subsided" in line with the immediate crisis. The release of the report coincides with the publication of the annual global Failed States index (FSI) compiled by the US NGO Fund for Peace and the bimonthly Foreign Policy Magazine, which brands Haiti “a failed state" (see overleaf).