The World Council of Churches (WCC) has welcomed the initiative by the seven most industrialised nations (G7), which has pledged to write off Haiti's debts.
 
In a letter from WCC general secretary, the Reverend Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, the WCC also asked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international financial institutions to follow the G7 example and make sure financial support to Haiti is "grant-based and not debt-creating".
 
Haiti's debts have been written off by the world's richest countries, the BBC said on February 7 2010.
 
The Caribbean nation owes more than half a billion dollars but needs financial help if it is going to recover the January 12 2010 earthquake.
 
The decision to cancel the loans was made at a meeting of the G7’s finance ministers in Canada.
 
According to the WCC statement, Tveit welcomed and expressed appreciation for the G7 initiative in a February 8 letter to the finance minister of Canada, James M. Flaherty, who hosted the G7 meeting in Canada.
 
Letters of appreciation were also sent to the finance ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
 
Tveit expressed hope that the G7 move will "encourage other countries and multilateral institutions to commit to the unconditional cancellation of Haiti's debts".
 
On January 12, Haiti's capital city Port-Au-Prince was hit by an earthquake that reportedly killed an estimated 200 000 people, injured about 250 000, and left 1.5 million homeless.
 
In regard to the IMF, Tveit shared his concern that "more loans" from the institution will add "to Haiti’s burden". He regretted that the IMF has not shown "clear willingness" nor made "definitive moves yet to cancel the country's current debt".
 
On January 20, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn said the institution was "working with all donors to try to delete all the Haitian debt", including the IMF's latest interest-free loan of $100 million. "If we succeed – and I'm sure we will succeed – even this loan will turn out to be finally a grant, because all the debt will have been deleted", Strauss-Kahn said.
 
Since then, IMF officials have shown far less enthusiasm than their boss, according to the WCC.
 
On January 27, IMF mission chief for Haiti Corinne Delechat made debt relief dependant on a disaster needs assessment to be done in February and said debt relief can achieve "little in comparison of the needs", the WCC said.
 
On February 4, IMF external relations director Caroline Atkinson said debt relief "is not a today issue" on the grounds that "Haiti owes the IMF no debt service now and will not for at least two years".
 
In his letter to the G7 ministers, Tveit reiterated the WCC call "for the immediate and full cancellation of Haiti's foreign debt as the quake-stricken country needs a broader plan to support recovery, poverty eradication and sustainable development".
 
He also called on international financial institutions to "take urgent measures to cancel Haiti’s debts" and to make sure that "all financial support to Haiti be grant-based and non-debt creating".
 
Tveit reiterated the commitment of the ecumenical family to Haiti's long-term needs.
 
Churches and church-related organisations around the world have participated in relief efforts since the disaster, particularly through the ACT Alliance, a global ecumenical grouping of churches and related agencies working on emergency relief and development and a partner organisation of the WCC.
 
On February 5, the Voice of America reported that US treasury secretary Timothy Geithner had said that the US would work with its international partners to relieve Haiti of its debts to global financial institutions.
 
Geithner said in a statement that the earthquake in Haiti was a catastrophic setback to its people, who are now facing tremendous emergency humanitarian and reconstruction needs. 
 
Geithner said that Haiti deserves and needs multilateral debt relief, and he called for grants to support its reconstruction and recovery from the quake.
 
Separately, the World Bank has praised efforts by the Swiss government to return assets linked to former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier to his homeland.
 
The bank issued a statement on February 5 saying that it welcomed the continued efforts to hand over "millions of stolen assets" held by the Duvalier family in Switzerland. The bank said the money could be used for development purposes following the devastating quake.
 
Earlier, Switzerland's government said that it would maintain a freeze on assets of the ex-dictator, after the country's supreme court ruled against returning about $4.6 million in funds to Haitian authorities.
 
Switzerland said that it would try to change the law to help Haiti recover the money. Authorities say the amount of money in Swiss bank accounts totals $5.7 million. The money has been frozen since Duvalier's ouster in 1986.
 
Switzerland has long been known as a country where money can easily be hidden because of the nation's banking secrecy rules. Recent banking reforms, however, have made it harder to hide money there.
 
Duvalier succeeded his father as Haitian leader in 1971. He is accused of stealing government funds. He lives in exile in France.
 
Meanwhile, With hundreds of Haitian schools destroyed or damaged by the January 12 2010 devastating earthquake, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) has launched a public appeal for donations to help re-establish the education system in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.

Of about 1500 schools visited to date in the worst hit areas of Haiti, only 85 had escaped severe damage from the 12 January quake, Unesco said in a media statement.

The vast reconstruction effort to rebuild Port-au-Prince, the destroyed capital, will require skilled workers and Unesco is also developing technical and vocational education and training for young people so that they may find employment and participate in this undertaking.

Significant contributions have also been pledged by Brazil, Bulgaria, Israel and the Norwegian Refugee Council for Unesco initiatives in the country. A Brazilian donation of $400 000 will fund training for teachers in psycho-social support and disaster awareness, benefiting 110 000 secondary and higher education students.