International Rescue Committee UK

Karri Goeldner Byrne is the IRC's director of economic recovery programmes and is based in London. She has flown out to Haiti to work on a market mapping analysis designed to help speed recovery and independence for communities after a disaster.

I've been writing the EMMA report ("EMMA" is much nicer than Emergency Market Mapping Analysis, which is what it stands for!) since 8am this morning, almost without break. It's the same for all of us, 16-hour days mostly. Dishes get stacked up in the sink and laptops and papers seem to cover every flat surface. But it's because the work needs to be done.

Tomorrow is the big report for EMMA – I got the early drafts last night and we've been getting fantastic information. Fortunately there is real resiliency in the economy here, thanks in part to work that's been done after previous disasters. For example it looks like beans (one of our critical markets) is not going to be an issue because of the good programming that was done after the hurricanes of 2008. So although there will be a need for repair of irrigation channels and some support for all the families who have fled out of Port-au-Prince to the rural areas, there won't be a shortage of beans – some good news!

For rice, about 50% is imported so the most serious issue is that people can't afford to buy it. It's the same with every kind of produce – there is plenty in the market but people simply can't afford to buy it. And if we give it away, then all the farmers and people who sell food for a living will lose their livelihoods – part of what EMMA will show is how to strike the right balance.

I was pleased to hear today that a commission of experts has come out and helped revise the curriculum so that engineers, architects and other skilled workers can get proper training to build homes and businesses that can withstand earthquakes and hurricanes. There was a desperate need to upgrade skills even before the earthquake. Now it looks like there is a need for about 115,000 construction workers, but many need to be trained or have their skills updated.

We want to make sure Haitians can get these jobs – before the earthquake many skilled positions were held by foreigners, while unemployment was 70% in the country. The IRC's economic recovery team is talking with our education colleagues to look at how we can come up with a programme that really tackles the training issue for the long term.

The thing that keeps bugging me though is how people can even get started with the bricks-and-mortar reconstruction. I learned yesterday that it costs $5,000 to $6,000 (£3,000 to £4,000) to clear a destroyed house. So just getting back to the start costs as much as a house itself. How on earth can people afford that? For the middle class, their whole life savings were in those homes and businesses. As excited as I am about the job opportunities and investment that is coming into the country, we've still got to get the basics back for people to rebuild their own lives.

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