text: To rebuild Haiti start with its young people A 700000-strong national civic service corps would harness untapped laborrapidly and instill national pride and confidence.By Robert Muggah and Robert MaguireJanuary 31 2010Haiti will need big ideas to recover and rebuild in the aftermath of the devastating magnitude 7.0 earthquake thismonth. The reported death toll has topped 150000 and the reconstruction needs are incalculable. How about startingwith a 700000-strong national civic service corps made up of Haitian youth? There are many reasons why such an entitymakes a lot of sense.Haiti is a young country. An estimated 70% of the population is under 30; the 15-to-29 segment alone makes up 50% ofthe population.Demographers have long cautioned how excessively youthful populations can potentially exacerbate underdevelopmentand accentuate political instability.Although Haiti registers among the lowest levels of education in the Western Hemisphere Haitian youth are a wellspringof creativity talent and potential. You don't need to be a community-development specialist to know that they arestifled by a lack of meaningful opportunities.Fortunately Haiti has an enabling environment to set up a civic service corps. Article 52 of the Haitian Constitutioncommits citizens to national service though it has never been activated. What is more there are many Haitian andinternational organizations mobilized and ready to help the government get this going.A civic service corps would get the young and able out of the tent cities in and around Port-au-Prince and into work.They could start with the once-iconic center of the capital but also could begin planting trees working the fields andproviding services in Haiti's countryside.At a minimum this would reverse generations of unfair stigmatizing of the youth there.This plan would also harness untapped labor rapidly. Before the Jan. 12 earthquake 50% of youth in their 20s were outof work. Putting them in service toward rebuilding the capital and outlying areas would be a first step to restoring theirand their country's pride and dignity.A civic service corps would also multiply international efforts to promote recovery after the world moves on to the nextcrisis. Hundreds of humanitarian agencies donor governments and nongovernmental organizations are facingmonumental challenges in coordinating relief assistance. Although everyone involved is committed to rapiddisbursement transaction costs are monumental. A civic service corps would allow for a more rapid form of transferringcapital.Direct support to such a corps would inject serious liquidity into the Haitian economy and stimulate recovery from thebottom up. Rather than food-for-work schemes international best practice recommends proposals that promote directmonetary transfers to beneficiaries. Haitian youth and their families have urgent needs and don't need paternalisticprograms that curb their choices. With proper oversight and financial safeguards a civic service corps would circumventunnecessary administrative costs.Further a civic service corps would restore national pride and confidence in Haitian public institutions. During pastdecades the state provided relatively few services to Haitians particularly outside the capital. In some cases stateentities were downright predatory. As a result nonstate providers including gangs and shady middlemen filled the gap.A civic service corps -- wearing the Haitian colors and acting as first responders or organizations demonstrating thegovernment's presence on the ground -- would show that the government is serious about supporting citizens. It wouldbe a symbolic first step toward renewing the social contract with the people.A civic service corps also makes sense for long-term risk and emergency planning. Haiti is situated in the path ofhurricanes and on a fault line and can expect more disasters. Training 700000 young people -- especially young women-- in the basics of first aid emergency response community policing and other skills would greatly mitigate theconsequences of future calamities. With disciplined training and management the corps could provide more intensivetraining in specialized areas -- engineering telecommunications and public health.An initial step to getting Haiti's youth to work could include the preparation of a road map for future meetings on Haitiincluding the U.N. donor conference scheduled for March. Any final plan would need to draw on the invaluableexperiences of ongoing efforts to mobilize youth in Haiti. These include the work of the Brazilian nongovernmentalorganization Viva Rio and its supporters. Before the earthquake Viva Rio and Brazilian peacekeepers had recruited andtrained hundreds of Haitian youth including former gang members to provide relief services in Haiti's slums. Thisprogram could be reactivated and scaled up quickly.A civic service corps could draw on the lessons from such groups to target and recruit youths for say up to two years.The Haitian government would of course need to be the one to manage the undertaking with direct oversight from thepresident's office and the Interior Ministry.And there are many countries that could provide advice and support.Nongovernmental groups and private donors could also play a key role in mobilizing support and transferring essentialskills.Haiti's youth are the future of the nation and they are central to Haiti's recovery. A civic service corps is a large-scaleway to quickly mobilize them to act as catalyst for long-term progressive changes.Robert Muggah based at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva is a principal ofthe SecDev Group and is currently advising multilateral and bilateral organizations on Haiti's recovery. Robert Maguire ison the faculty of Trinity Washington University and chairs the Haiti Working Group of the United States Institute ofPeace in Washington.Copyright (c) 2010 The Los Angeles Times