The Trade and Industry Minister estimated that the earthquake's toll on the Haitian economy would be massive, with one in five jobs lost. Hundreds of Haitians were employed to clear roads and to make fuel pellets in a cash-for-work scheme set up by the UN development programme. The president of Senegal even offered Haitians free land in Senegal.
Brazil announced a €140-million donation for long-term recovery aid. The UK offered ₤24 million in aid while France promised €10 million. Italy announced it would waive repayment of the €40 million it had loaned to Haiti. The World Bank waived the country's debt repayments for five years.
Port-au-Prince was ill-equipped even before the disaster to sustain the number of people who had migrated there from the countryside in search of work over the previous ten years. Many of these rural migrants lived in shanty towns around the city. After the earthquake, thousands of Port-au-Prince residents began returning to the rural towns which they had left years earlier in search of a better way of life.
Haiti's government has estimated the economic damage and loss from the quake at close to €7 billion.
A rebuilding plan being considered by aid donors foresees the creation of a Multi-Donors Trust Fund and a Reconstruction Agency to be managed by Haiti's government and representatives of donors.
Haiti's government and donor country partners are insisting on a decentralisation strategy to be at the heart of the reconstruction plan. This will seek to decongest the crowded and wrecked capital and set up economic development poles in the rest of the country in order to create jobs and industries. The population, capital city and economy will take many years to recover.
A severe outbreak of cholera in the months following the earthquake led to more deaths.