“When considering the structure of a project and the principal factors that make a project successful, there is a good reason to wonder if, up until now - six months after the Quake, anyone can talk about a Haiti rebuilding project.”

On January 12, 2010, a dreadful earthquake hit Haiti. Thousands of families lost their homes, and the majority of government buildings, schools and churches collapsed; many people lost their lives, it was a total disaster. The large TV networks such as Al Jazeera and CNN displayed the gruesome images of collapsed buildings, the decomposing bodies of innocent men, women and children abandoned on the streets, and amputees fighting for their lives. The people all over the world became sympathetic to the fate of the Haitian people. Thousands of foreign rescue workers converged in Haiti, coming as far as Israel and money poured into the American Red Cross, the White House, the United Nations and other non-government aid organizations.

Meanwhile, the Haitian communities in the United States and Canada, who represent an estimated 1/3 of the Haitian population positioned themselves as rightful stakeholders and began to organize large meetings to discuss the Haiti reconstruction project. The idea of a Haiti reconstruction project began to take shape. The UN assigned former president Bill Clinton as the project coordinator, or technically the sponsor, a decision that raised eyebrows due to the extent of this prospective project and the responsibility that former president already have toward his foundation and his Global Initiative.

New leadership has emerged in the Haitian communities throughout the Diaspora; the fight for control has begun among Haitian leaders and activists. They raced aggressively to make up their small clans with hopes of taking the lead of the reconstruction project despite their ignorance of the challenges ahead. On the other hand, a few power brokers close to President Rene Preval and his wife met in Petion-Ville, a few miles from Port-Au-Prince, and rushed to put together a nonsensical plan, with no risk management strategy, no communication plan, no scope, no work estimates, called it a project and attached a multi-million dollar price tag to it. Shortly after, they set in motion a crusade in Canada and the U.S. to sell this so call “project” with no plans.

It’s no surprise that an educated man who attended an informational meeting on the Haiti Project at MIT in Cambridge, said: “I have not seen any project, this is the Haiti’s way of conducting business.” A Dominican official said plainly: “This project is not acceptable.”

When considering the structure of a project and the principal factors that make a project successful, there is a good reason to wonder if, up until now -six months after the earthquake, anyone can talk about a Haiti rebuilding project. If there is a project, there are so many fundamental elements missing in the plan that they proposed, we can say it objectively; this project is doomed to fail if the UN leaders don’t make a decision to reassess their strategy. I explain:

A project is a job that has a time to begin and a time to end; it must be completed within budget and meet the expectations of the stakeholders. No one can tell exactly what the Haiti rebuilding project is. When and where it starts? When will it end? The basic project management requirements have not been met.

Project management is not a show business that can be led by Hollywood superstars and powerful politicians. Projects need experienced project managers to put together a great team to plan and control it and to bring a quality deliverable, in the case of this Haiti project, to build a modern capital. We certainly need the abilities of politicians and superstars to raise funds to support.