PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – MORE than 20 countries and international organisations have pledged US$324M in aid to Haiti.

The poorest country in the western hemisphere was the subject of an international donors conference held in Washington  yesterday (Apr. 14). The conference, an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) initiative, was organised to collect financial commitments from countries and multilateral institutions to channel towards the impoverished nation.

Among the sponsors, the World Bank pledged US$20M for infrastructural development while US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would give US$57M to the cause.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn were also present at the conference.

The Haitian government is still trying to recover from a difficult 2008 in which over 800 persons died and nearly US$1B in damages was caused by the passage of several hurricanes and tropical storms during the summer. To compound matters, the country was also suffering from the effects of high food and fuel prices, which caused widespread starvation and shortages.

According to BBC News, Haitian Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis had warned before the conference that a failure to take action would be “catastrophic”. She had appealed for $US900M over two years for education, health and other related services, and said the aid package would help Haiti in its “quest for lasting development and democracy”.

IDB officials said that US$41M of the total amount pledged would go towards filling a US$125M shortfall in Haiti’s budget. In addition to the aid pledged, Haiti is also expected to receive about US$1B in debt-relief by mid-2009.