The election of Haiti’s new president represents a pivotal moment and a management challenge that will equally confront any of the candidates who stood for election on March 20 (in preliminary results announced April 4, after this piece was first published, Michel Martelly was elected). Fourteen months after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, images of tent camps, crowded hospitals, and chaos abound. Yet they belie the country’s potential and recent progress.

What is essential today is that the government should undertake the strong management needed to work with the private and nonprofit sectors. The goal: to create structures that will allow Haiti to shift its focus from immediate relief and recovery to longer-term development, which will permit Haitians to build better lives for themselves. The ongoing tragedy of the devastation in Japan, a nation with substantial resources for aid and economic recovery, shows how large the rebuilding challenge is for a country like Haiti and highlights the importance of continuing investment.