Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development

by Robert M. Worth, PPAF Intern

PPAF has added a number of videos produced by Frank and Dana Minaya of the Samana College Research Center in the D.R. onto the PPAF YouTube site.  They feature the PPAF / SImACT workshop in Jacmel, June 12 – 13, 2010 – on “Reconstruction and Business Opportunities in Southern Haiti,” as well as the June 9 – 10, 2010 “Building a New Haiti” Conference held at Club Indigo in Montrouis.  Thank you , Frank and Dana! 

Click on the titles below to view the videos.

BUILDING A NEW JACMEL, HAITI

SImAct and PPAF sponsored a workshop in Jacmel on June 12-13, 2010, for the exploration of reconstruction and business opportunities in southern Haiti.  About 50 participants traveled there on the morning of June 12 from the Building a New Haiti conference (organized by American Chambers of Commerce (of the D.R. and Haiti) and the U.S. Commercial Service).  Another 25  joined them  from Jacmel, elsewhere in Haiti and internationally.

HAITIAN SYNERGY #3

Haitian Needs and Answers as described by Reginald Boulos, coordinator of the Haitian Private Sector Forum, notes President Obama’s commitment to Haiti.  He spoke at the Building New Haiti conference held at Club Indigo on June 10-11, 2010.

 HAITI’S SYNERGY #2

Reginald Boulos, speaking at the “Building a New Haiti” Conference.

HAITIAN SYNERGY – JUNE 2010

Photos from the “Building a New Haiti” Conference held June 10-13, 2010, at Club Indigo and Jacmel’s Hotel Cap Lamandou.  The first few minutes show Betsy Wall of the Foundation for International Development Assistance (FIDA) giving a special message for rebuilding Haiti.  Images and presentations from the Jacmel Workshop by PPAF and SImACT follow.

 HAITI’S MINISTER OF TOURISM PATRICK DELATOUR  (in Creole and French)

“Regional Priorities for Recovery and Development,” Jacmel, Haiti, June 12, 2010.   Minister Delatour meets with participants and reporters at the Jacmel Workshop.

RENE PREVAL, PRESIDENT OF HAITI,  JUNE 11, 2010

Rene Preval, President of Haiti, speaks at the “Building a New Haiti” conference.

On June 12-13 PPAF and SImACT held their Jacmel Workshop “Reconstruction and Business Opportunities in Southern Haiti” at the Cap Lamandou Hotel.  This took place at a time of great crisis but also great opportunity. “Refondation”  will take many years and billions of dollars.  Yet the cry is to “build back better,” and investment, commerce and business have central importance in this.  

Some Jacmel participants

Seventy potential investors and contractors, the mayor and the president of the local chamber of commerce of Jacmel and other notables participated.  Conference materials with details on participating companies and organizations will soon be available on the PPAF website.   Photos can be viewed here.   

The Minister of Tourism (and reconstruction) Patrick Delatour gave the keynote address and an extensive powerpoint presentation.  He encouraged revitalization of the historic areas of Jacmel and other sites and their potential for becoming an economic engine for rebuilding and tourism.  He stressed the themes of revitalization of infrastructure, decentralization from Port-au-Prince, job creation, income generation and rebuilding Haitian pride.   

(l to r) Roland Zenny, Pres. Jacmel Chamber of Commerce; Edwin Zenny, Mayor of Jacmel; Patrick Delatour, Minister of Tourism

Photo: Frizner Nau 

Our workshop built on a just-completed conference of 600 participants that was organized by the American Chambers of Commerce of the Dominican Republic and of Haiti and the US Commercial Service. About 50 AmCham conference participants left at 6 a.m, Saturday and traveled by bus for a weekend in Jacmel. joined by others already residing in Haiti.  There we had practical discussions and site visits that focused on several priorities for Southern Haiti – seaport and airport infrastructure; the “soft house” and other transitional housing; agriculture and fishing; cooking without charcoal; Jacmel’s historic district, the arts and promotion of tourism; and the planned multipurpose community at Belle Rive.

Participants were struck by the magnitude of damage but also the possibilities for revitalization.  The resilience of the population, the hospitality and competence of the hotel, the vision and compassion of business people, the vitality of a nearby art foundation for homeless children, all contributed to a sense that serious efforts were merited and will bear fruit.   The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Al Jazeera TV and the Haitian magazine Rebelle Haiti as well as local Jacmelian press covered the event. 

Representatives of a dozen organizations discussed prospects for manufacture of ethanol stoves in Haiti and provision of fuel on a commercial basis, leading to planning and tentative agreements among Project Gaia, SImACT, Dometic, Inc., PPAF, the Haitian-American Association of Engineers and Scientists and others.   Representatives of the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children also participated in these discussions.  Since the Jacmel Workshop, Project Gaia has announced that 1,440 donated stoves are about to be shipped and that the Brazilian government will make available donated fuel to start pilot efforts.    

Similarly, guarantors and potential providers of funds for the Belle Rive site were impressed by SImACT’s planning and initial investments, the excellence of the site, and the potential in three markets — Haitian diaspora, decentralization from Port-au-Prince and development managers. 

The motto of SImACT is “To provide means to achieve, opportunities to live and reasons to dream.”  Strong steps were taken toward these goals at the Jacmel Workshop.

An article on the workshop, “Jacmel Woos Foreign Investors to Rebuild Shattered Resorts.” appears in the Globe and Mail (Toronto), written by Jessica Leeder, who writes “Project Jacmel,” an ongoing series. 

In order to assist businesses to work in the redevelopment of Haiti, several organizations have held or will hold events to bring prospective investment, commercial and related interests together.  Here are a few:

June 10-11, 2010 – AMCHAM DR / AMCHAM Haiti Conference– Montrouis, Haiti

About 600 people attended the “Building A New Haiti” conference organized by the American Chambers of Commerce of the Dominican Republic and Haiti and the U.S. Commercial Service.   Speakers included the Haitian President Rene Preval and the Prime Minister, Max Bellerive.  Partial lists of attendees and presenters and PowerPoint presentations of selected speeches are available on the AmCham DR website:  http://amcham.org.do  David Stillman of PPAF and a team from SImACT attended, with Lesly Kernisant making a presentation in the Tourism segment.  PPAF has posted a few photos from the event.

June 12-13, 2010 – PPAF/SImACT Workshop, Jacmel, Haiti    

About 50 participants from the AmCham conference, plus about 20 from Jacmel and elsewhere participated in the PPAF / SImACT workshop “Reconstruction and Business Opportunities in Southern Haiti.”  Billed as an add-on to the AmCham conference, this workshop focused group discussions and site visits on several practical possibilities.  The Minister of Tourism Patrick Delatour gave a keynote address.   (See article, press and photos.)

June 21, 2010 – “Building a New Haiti” Debriefing and Planning meeting, Brooklyn, NY

About 20 people attended the meeting, held at the offices of the Brooklyn International Trade Development Center of Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York.  Several shareholders and friends of SImACT participated, as well as the PPAF Executive Director.   Thoughts, comments and suggestions of those who attended the June 10-11 conference in Montrouis will be used to shape the July 10 forum and the September trade mission (below) and for communications with government officials.  

July 10, 2010 – Meeting to Plan a Trade Mission to Haiti, Brooklyn, NY

Participants in the July 10 meeting will help plan for a trade mission to Haiti.  The meeting is being organized by the New York State Association of Minority Contractors and the NS and J Advisory Group.  It will be held Medgar Evers College.  PPAF and SImACT have been invited as presenters.  Contact events@nsandj.com  to reserve a place.

September 8-10, 2010 –  Proposed Trade Mission to Haiti 

A trade mission, jointly led by NS&J Advisory Group and SImACT, is being planned for September, to Jacmel and other sites in Haiti.  Details will be available after the July 10 meeting.

While videos don’t replace a visit to Jacmel, here are some that give a flavor of its history and charm, its devastation after the January 12 earthquake, and a glimpse into opportunities for the future.

Jacmel, Haiti (Documentary)  – March 11, 2008 (en francais) - Productions Fanal.   This documentarty is about the town of Jacmel located in the southeast of Haiti. The film talks about Jacmel’s history and its contribution to haitian culture, art, literature, and so on. (in French)

Reviving Jacmel: Haiti’s Cultural Capital - February 16, 2010 – Time Magazine

The Power Brokers  Meet a few of the key players in Jacmel. - April 6, 2010, Globe and Mail – embedded in the article.

Jacmel, Tourist Area in Haiti, Decimated by Quake - January 18, 2010, Associated Press

 Jacmel – Haitian Port City Shattered, Forgotten - January 17, 2010, Miami Herald

The World Summit for the Future of Haiti was held in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic on June 2, 2010   It was hosted by Dominican President Leonel Fernandez who opened summit along with Haitian President Rene Preval,  U.N. special envoy to Haiti former president Bill Clinton and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive.  This was a follow up to the summit held in New York on March 31 in which a total of almost 10 billion dollars was pledged by the various countries and international organizations that attended.

The June 2 summit was organized in effort to begin to review the funds that had already been pledged in the months following the New York summit. The day was spent discussing ways to create and implement initiatives aimed at rebuilding the Haitian infrastructure after the devastating earthquake of January 12. The focus was on projects that would restore some of Haiti’s most basic systems such as water, sewage and electricity, as well as building housing for the many displaced Haitians.

Fifty-four donor countries and 35 international organizations attended the summit. According to President Fernandez, by its close, a total of 7.81 billion was promised to help aid in the reconstruction of Haiti- still short of the 10 billion originally pledged in New York.  Most of these funds have not yet been delivered.

“ All this leads to the figure of US$6.71 billion. If we add the US$1.30 billion offered by the United States in the Summit in New York to that, we’ve already identified US$ 7.81 billion in pledges for Haiti’s reconstruction” (President Fernandez) .

 Former President Clinton and Prime Minister Bellerive are charged with using $ 5.3 billion of those dollars to fund various reconstruction projects over the next 18 months. The new Interim Commission for the Reconstruction of Haiti (ICRH), will have their first meeting on June 14th to discuss further details.

Another concern was the safety of the million or so Haitians who are now homeless and susceptible to the 2010 Hurricane season which began June 1. Efforts are being made to ensure their protection and secure housing for the refugees in order to shield them from the effects of the harsh season and prevent further tragedy.

“We have more than one million people that are currently living in very precarious conditions, in camping tents,” stated Clinton, who is the United Nation’s Special Envoy to Haiti. “We can not allow for people to die during this Hurricane Season because they inhabit temporary dwellings.”

As Haiti starts to recover from the earthquake, but while access to much of the promised funding is yet unavailable, it’s important to remember the beginnings of the tragedy.

The PPAF YouTube channel now provides links to several videos from the United Nations in Action series that recount the first two months after the earthquake in Haiti.   Also linked is an earlier video on the protection of mangroves in the north. 

MINUSTAH hit hard by Haiti’s earthquake

Haiti’s Earthquake disaster

Haiti: Emergency medical care after the quake

Haiti: Search and rescue

Haiti: Food aid continues

Haiti Earthquake: UNICEF helps children to reunite with their families

Les soins médicaux d’urgence à la suite du séisme en Haïti

L’aide alimentaire continue en Haïti

Durement touchée par le tremblement de terre en Haïti

L’opération de recherche et secours en Haïti

Haiti: mangrove protection

The Haiti Economic Lift Program (HELP) Act of 2010  (H.R. 5160) was passed by both houses of Congress and signed into effect by President Obama on May 24, 2010.  A broad spectrum of organizations, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to Oxfam America, supported passage of this act,  which allows Haiti to increase its apparel exports to the US duty free and extends existing US trade preference programs with Haiti for 10 years.  This should create many new jobs in Haiti, which are desperately needed to aid recovery from the earthquake. 

FAVACA, the Florida International Volunteer Corps, has announced that Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, P.A. (ST&R), a customs and international trade law firm, will provide a free Webinar about the HELP Act and how to do more business in Haiti.    This will take place on Tuesday, June 8, from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. (Webinar ID #1109).

The presentation  will include details of these expanded benefits, including:
· New apparel products covered
· Increased Tariff Preference Levels for Knit and Woven apparel made from 3rd country inputs.
· Extended duration of Preference Programs for Haiti
· Modified earned import allowance ratio for knit and woven apparel,
· New duty free treatment for made-up textile products wholly assembled or knit to shape in Haiti.
 
The one hour webinar will be presented by Tom Travis and Elise Shibles.

Register online at  www.strtrade.com
Select “Invoice Company” as the payment method when registering, to allow registration to go through.  There will be no invoice and Login information details will be sent within 24 hours of registration.

PPAF and SImACT, Inc. will hold the Reconstruction and Business Opportunities in Southern Haiti conference on June 12-13 at the Cap Lamandou Hotel in the coastal city of Jacmel.

Nearly 50 participants from over 30 organizations have registered, and represent businesses, professional associations, NGOs, media outlets and government officials from the U.S., Haiti, Canada, the Dominican Republic and several other countries.

The event will focus on areas of development and business including agriculture, infrastructure including seaport and airport, ethanol cookstoves, energy, housing and construction, distribution, tourism, transportation / logistics, the Historic District of Jacmel, social venture capital, healthcare, education, microfinance and art & artisans.

Participants will tour the area and will be able to meet local and national governmental authorities, become acquainted with needs and opportunities in Southern Haiti, and meet potential investors and business and NGO partners.

Jacmel, home to artisans and the arts, historic buildings that predate New Orleans, beautiful beaches and a developing tourist site, was strongly affected by the earthquake – for example, the hospital was demolished and many lost their homes or places of business. But large parts of the city remain untouched, and as the main city in Southeastern Haiti, Jacmel offers important prospects for reconstruction, for business and tourism and for development toward a bright future. The government of Haiti has proposed Jacmel for placement on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Must Reading!  If you’re not already familiar with it, view the on-line website of The Globe and Mail, published in Toronto, Canada.  That site is devoting significant amounts of space to “Project Jacmel: A City Rebuilds.”   PPAF would like to commend the paper for its excellent coverage, which surpasses anything else available.

Click here for a description of the concept and passions behind Project Jacmel, as well as facts about the city and area.  Articles posted cover seven principal areas and characters:  store, tent city, hotel, the student, power brokers, artisans, church, plus the blog and other stories.

Le vendredi après-midi 11 Juin, PPAF et SImACT, Inc. tiendront une table ronde sur la reconstruction dans le sud de Haïti a la Conférence de la Chambre de commerce américaine << Construire une Nouvelle Haïti >>

Les membres du groupe seront: Patrick Delatour, ministre de Haiti pour le Tourisme (et reconstruction); Dr. Lesly Kernisant, président de SImACT, Inc; Roland Zenny, président de la Chambre de commerce de Jacmel et le Dr David Stillman, directeur  exécutif de PPAF.

Le lendemain matin, les inscrits partent pour le voyage à Jacmel.