Ambassador Andrew Young, Chairman of the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund, discussed how the SAEDF model could help in rebuilding Haiti. This column originally appeared on February 5, 2010, the the Politico.

Shortly after the earthquake in Haiti, the Rev. Pat Robertson took to the airwaves to declare that Haiti had “made a pact to the devil” and had “been cursed by one thing after the other.”

But Robertson, of all people, should know that the devil is in the details. In reality, if not for the brave people in Haiti, today we all might be speaking French in Fort Lauderdale, eating snails in Sarasota and passing francs in Baton Rouge.

Why? Few high school textbooks mention it, but more than 200 years ago, the Emperor Napoleon had his sights set on Florida. France already owned the 14 U.S. states known as the Louisiana Territory and hoped to annex Florida, too, to bring France back to glory.

It was not to be. In another French colony, Haiti, armies of African slaves were successfully battling Napoleon’s troops in the so-called Haitian Revolution. That embarrassing military defeat caused Napoleon to lose interest in the Western Hemisphere altogether, persuading him to sell the massive Louisiana Territory to the United States. His plans to capture Florida were abandoned.

So rather than cursing our neighbors to our south, we owe them a debt of gratitude.

We’re off to a good start. As President Barack Obama noted in his State of the Union address, more than 10,000 Americans “are working with many nations to help the people of Haiti recover and rebuild.” The president poignantly noted that America is helping the Haitian people because “it is right” and because “our destiny is connected to those beyond our shores.”

The Obama administration immediately committed troops and $100 million in aid for the people of Haiti. In the short term, grants and other such offers of help are the necessary forms of assistance. But the U.S. should consider a long-term solution and create a Haitian enterprise fund to jump-start economic development in the ravaged nation.

Haiti needs more than a handout. It needs enduring economic sustainability, and enterprise funds might just be the right solution. Congress established the first enterprise funds in the 1980s. Modeled after private equity and venture capital funds, they are funded by U.S. tax dollars and run by independent and unpaid boards with investment expertise. Today, these unique funds have invested in more than 500 companies in Africa and Eastern Europe and have created more than 250,000 jobs.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton and South African President Nelson Mandela established the Southern Africa Enterprise Development Fund to provide economic opportunity to the formerly disenfranchised populations of Southern Africa. I have chaired the SAEDF Board since its inception.

Today, SAEDF has invested more than 80 million tax dollars in 25 new business operations owned by formerly disadvantaged indigenous people in Africa. Those businesses have employed more than 2,000 workers and have created employment for an estimated 50,000 people in spinoff jobs. SAEDF’s investments have returned more than $67 million.

Like the Haitians, the Africans aided by SAEDF face overwhelming poverty, staggering unemployment, a history of corruption, almost no economic infrastructure and a lack of an educated work force. Nonetheless, with the backing of the U.S. government, SAEDF has profited, educating a generation of new financial managers and creating thousands of jobs in Africa. Let’s repeat this success story in Haiti.

The tragic earthquake — and our shared history — makes clear that Haiti needs our assistance today. It certainly doesn’t need our scorn, borne of historical ignorance. We must all stand together to make Haiti stronger and more stable. N’est-ce pas?