GONAIVES, Haiti, July 7 (UPI) -- Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, serving as the United Nations' special envoy, Tuesday toured parts of Haiti hammered by hurricanes and floods last year.
Clinton was in Gonaives with Haitian President Rene Preval as part of his three-day visit to help improve hurricane preparedness and job creation in the impoverished Caribbean nation, the United Nations said in a release.
They discussed labor-intensive rehabilitation projects and providing basic services to communities in the Artibonite Valley.
The two men also visited a flood-prevention project on the La Quinte River, which drenched the city last year, and an emergency hospital that has temporarily replaced one destroyed by hurricanes.
Clinton, who met Monday night with Preval and Prime Minister Pierre Louis, also was to tour a garbage recycling project in the poor suburb of Carrefour Feuilles in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
He also was to to meet with members of Parliament, and Wednesday talk with members of the private sector, international and national non-governmental organizations and civil society groups.
U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said Clinton would "also focus on how to ensure that the United Nations, civil society and the donor community align their activities with the government's recovery plan, as well as with each other."
Haiti was hit by four back-to-back tropical storms last year that killed nearly 800 people and affected an estimated 1 million people, the U.N. release said.
