Over a hundred members of the international aid and development community gathered in Orlando, Florida for the inaugural Disaster Response & Recovery Summit, which took place at the Caribe Royale Hotel & Convention Center on 1-2 March 2011.   The summit was organized to bring key decision makers in the aid & development community together with government policy-makers and partnering contractors looking to assist in the aftermath of disasters around the globe.

About one-third of the speakers dealt with Haiti.  David Stillman’s presentation consisted of a photo essay as well as a speech on “Lives, Livelihoods and Environment in Haiti.”  To request a  copy of the speech, email: ppafoundation@gmail.com

Dr. David Stillman, Lord Kevin Lumb

The summit covered key issues during the morning presentations and enabled delegates to meet with UN, business and NGO officials in the afternoons.   Twenty roundtables were set up for this purpose, with over 300 meetings taking place over the two days.

Proceedings were opened by Lord Kevin Lumb, Chairman of Global Development Summits. 

The Public-Private Alliance Foundation welcomes two great supporters to its November 4 Benefit.   To attend the Benefit, meet and network, view great Haitian art, and to contribute to the Foundation, see the Blog article of October 22, below. 

  Tony Plana

Tony Plana (in Ugly Betty)

Noted actor Tony Plana recently starred as Ignacio Suarez, the widowed father to America Ferrera’s Ugly Betty, in ABC’s hit series. He starred previously in Showtime’s original series, Resurrection Boulevard, and was nominated for two Alma Awards for best actor.  He has also guest starred on Royal Pains.

Plana has starred in more than 70 feature films, including JFK, Nixon, Salvador, An Officer and a Gentleman, Lone Star, Three Amigos, Born in East L.A., El Norte, 187, Primal Fear, Romero, One Good Cop, Havana, The Rookie, Silver Strand and Picking Up the Pieces with Woody Allen. He recently appeared Half Past Dead with Steven Segal, Morris Chestnut, and JaRul; The Lost City, with Andy Garcia, Bill Murray, and Dustin Hoffman; and Disney’s highly acclaimed GOAL, The Dream Begins!;in  El Muerto starring Wilbur Valderama, Justified, Towards Darkness, and AmericanEast with Tony Shaloub. 

 On television he recently starred in the Showtime Original Miniseries, Fidel, as the notorious Cuban dictator, Batista, as well as Showtime’s Noriega: God’s Favorite. He has portrayed leading roles in Veronica Claire for Lifetime, Bakersfield P.D. for FOX and Steven Bocco’s Total Security and City of Angels for ABC.  He has also appeared in several Emmy award winning programs such as Sweet Fifteen, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story, The Burning Season: The Life and Death of Chico Mendes and a special episode of L.A. Law.  Mr. Plana has portrayed recurring roles on NBC’s The West Wing as the U.S. Secretary of State, FOX’S 24, CSI, Monk, Almost Perfect, and The Closer for TNT. 

 Plana has been very active in live theatre.  On Broadway, his credits include Zoot Suit and The Boys of Winter, and a wide variety of productions in many other venues.   

 He is the recipient of many awards for outstanding work in film, television and theater.  

 Plana celebrated his solo directorial debut in December 2000 with The Princess and the Barrio Boy, which won the 2001 Imagen Award for Best Made for Television Movie.  He also has directed several episodes of Nickelodeon’s hit series, The Brothers Garcia, and the season finale of Greetings from Tucson for the Warner Brothers Network. 

 Plana is also the co-founder and executive artistic director of the East L.A. Classic Theatre, a group comprised primarily of Hispanic American theatre professionals.  The Theatre has served the Latino community through educational outreach programs to primary and secondary schools and through bi-lingual education. 

 Plana earned a Bachelor’s degree in literature and theatre arts at Loyola-Marymount University, Los Angeles, graduating magna cum laude.  He received professional training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.  He is married to actress, Ada Maris and is the proud father of Alejandro and Isabel.  For more, see:  www.tonyplana.com   

Ian Williams

Ian Williams

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.

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

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

Several recent articles have mentioned PPAF’s work:

FUNGLODE, the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development of the Dominican Republic, featured PPAF’s work in Haiti, at the UN Department of Public Information / NGO Forum  “NGOs Responding to Crisis: Meeting New Challenges, the Case of Haiti” held on February 24, 2010.  Press release dated March 1, 2010.

The Dominican newspaper El Nuevo Diario  wrote in “Expertos nacionales e internacionales revisarán estrategia en acuicultura“ about the fish farming conference  held by the  Dominican Aquaculture Association ADOA on March 23-24, 2010.  Article dated February 23, 2010.

The April newsletter of the Kiran C. Patel Center for Global Solutions of the University of South Florida included an article about David Stillman’s March 22 talk on Alternative Energy in Developing countries.  See page 4 of the newsletter:   http://patelcenter.rc.usf.edu/documents/newsletters/1004Apr.pdf

Powering Haiti’s Future

TAMPA, Fla. (March 16, 2010) – International experts involved in the rebuilding of Haiti believe there’s an unprecedented opportunity to incorporate alternative energy sources into the new infrastructure, says David Stillman, the executive director of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation which is working with the United Nations in charting a new path for the earthquake-ravaged nation.

Stillman will brief the USF community on those plans during a talk at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, March 22, in the Marshall Student Center, Room 2707, on sustainable development and renewable energy in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other developing nations. The conversation is open to the public.

The Public-Private Alliance Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing poverty in the world by uniting business, governmental, community, academic with efforts through the United Nations. The organization’s goal is to stimulate entrepreneurship, commerce and investment in sustainable development. 

Stillman, a United Nations senior officer for 30 years, said he recently attended a Haiti reconstruction conference where organizations are already taking steps to incorporate alternative energy resources – such as ethanol-powered cook stoves – into relief and rebuilding efforts. Stillman said alternative energy can be built into the Haiti’s new infrastructure, creating jobs and a sustainable economic base for the impoverished nation.

The organization had already been considering opportunities to incorporate alternative energy into development in the Dominican Republic when the Jan. 12 earthquake hit Haiti. The focus had been on a sugarcane-based ethanol – a natural because of the island’s history in sugarcane production, which has waned in recent years leaving fields vacant and workers unemployed. But other alternative forms of clean, sustainable energy could be developed if public, private, academic, non-governmental organizations, private corporations and financiers can coordinate their efforts, he said.

“Renewable energy is needed and is possible in various ways at various levels,” he said.

Stillman’s presentation is part of a continuing focus the Patel Center has on renewable energy projects in the region. The center recently selected two USF students for a six-week business development internship to analyze market potential for alternative energy products in the Dominican Republic and Panama.

Kedwin Dominguez is currently a junior majoring in electrical engineering. His research interests include incorporating alternative energy sources in communities in United States and Dominican Republic. Wilnelly Ortiz is a marketing major in the College of Business Administration with an interest in learning more about businesses in other countries.

The focus of these U.S. Department of Education-funded internships is to help small businesses in Florida involved in alternative energy products and services to develop and expand their export markets.

The University of South Florida is one of the nation’s top 63 public research universities and one of only 25 public research universities nationwide with very high research activity that is designated as community engaged by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  USF was awarded $380.4 million in research contracts and grants in FY 2008/2009. The university offers 232 degree programs at the undergraduate, graduate, specialist and doctoral levels, including the doctor of medicine. The USF System has a $1.8 billion annual budget, an annual economic impact of $3.2 billion, and serves more than 47,000 students on institutions/campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and Lakeland. USF is a member of the Big East Athletic Conference.

-USF

by

Vickie Chachere
News Manager
University Communications & Marketing
813-974-6251
vchachere@admin.usf.edu

Haiti:  Building Back Better was the underlying theme of three meetings held at the United Nations on February 24.  UN Webcasts are available for all three — click on the blue titles below.  

David Stillman spoke at the morning session – the Communications Workshop.  A group of PPAF and related colleagues attended, including Scott Wright and Jeanne Betsock Stillman, board members; John L. German, Senior Fellow; Rosario Rodriguez, Associate; and colleagues Rodney Leon and Renan X. Pierre, Haiti Initiative for Building, Infrastructure and Sustainable Communities (HIBISCUS), Alex Krutansky (businessman) and Dr. Leo Slutsky.  Stillman’s remarks can be found at:   39’42″ and Q&A at 1:12′ 53″ and 1: 35′

UN Department of Public Information/NGO Communications Workshop on “NGOs responding to crisis: Meeting new challenges – The case of Haiti“.  1 hr 49 min. Ambassador Jean-Wesley Cazeau, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Mission of Haiti to the UN, gave opening remarks on the situation in Haiti.  Speakers included: Nicholas Reader, Deputy Spokesperson of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA); Patrick McCormick, Senior Emergency Communications Specialist and Deputy Chief of Media Relations at UNICEF HQ; Jocelyn McCalla, Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy of Haiti for the United Nations; David Stillman, Executive Director of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation (PPAF); and Patricia Sacristan, past Chair of the Young Professionals for International Cooperation, United Nations Association of the USA, Southern New York State Division.  The Moderator was Gail Bindley-Taylor Sainté, Information Officer, NGO Relations, UN Department of Public Information.

Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary-General focused on the Situation in Haiti.  1 hr. 4 min. Anthony Banbury, Acting Principal Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) briefed journalists on the situation in Haiti.

Special Event: “Haiti Re-Building Against All Odds: Fostering Partnerships”.  1 hr. 41 min. Organized by the United Nations Association of Haiti in Collaboration with the Permanent Mission of Haiti to the United Nations.   The event was opened by Harvey Dupiton, new Secretary-General of the United Nations Association of Haiti.   Ambassador Francis Lorenzo, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Dominican Republic to the UN, co-founder of the UN Association of the Dominican Republic, and Vice-Chair of the PPAF Board, gave welcoming remarks.   Ambassador Leo Merores, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations, gave the keynote address.   Panels included ”Community Level Participation in Education and Health,” “Partnerships in Microfinance and a Diaspora-originated Investment Fund for Haiti” and ”How Can Haiti’s Dynamic Music and Art Culture Boost Development?”

Currently all United Nations Webcasts on Haiti are being grouped at the following site:  http://www.un.org/webcast/haiti.html

PPAF has posted materials on its website (see Events Section) relating to the Bioenergy Sectoral Meetings held at the National Energy Commission of the Dominican Republic from 2 to 4 December 2009.   This includes the Spanish language report approved by the CNE as well as links to the invitation, photos and videos filmed in the D.R. with Dominican TV Revista 110 and by PPAF.

PPAF ha publicado material en su sitio web (Sección Eventos), relativa a las reuniones sectoriales de Bioenergía, celebrada en la Comisión Nacional de Energía de la República Dominicana 2 a 4 diciembre de 2009. Esto incluye el informe en español, aprobado por el CNE, así como enlaces a la invitación, fotos y vídeos.

The meetings brought out the views of representatives from the public sector, the financial community and companies with pilot field experience, and academics and the private sector — over 55 people in total.  

En las reuniones participaron los representantes del sector público, la comunidad financiera y las empresas con la experiencia sobre el terreno, y los académicos y el sector privado – más de 55 personas en total.

In addition to the National Energy Commission (CNE) as host and leader, the Public-Private Alliance Foundation and ResearchPAYS, Inc. benefited from collaboration and sponsorship from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the RJS Group, S.A., and the United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP).  The December discussions expanded upon the recommendations reached at the introductory session held in Santo Domingo in early October, where Grupo Vicini, the Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization (IREO) and the Center for Export and Investment of the Dominican Republic (CEI-RD) were sponsors as well.

Además de la Comisión Nacional de Energía (CNE), como anfitrión y líder de la Public-Private Alliance Foundation y ResearchPAYS, Inc. beneficiado de la colaboración y el patrocinio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, el Grupo de RJS, SA, y la United Nations Office for Partnerships (UNOP). Los debates de diciembre ampliaron las recomendaciones formuladas en la sesión preliminar celebrada en Santo Domingo a principios de octubre, donde el Grupo Vicini, la Organización Intergubernamental de Energías Renovables (IREO) y el Centro de Exportación e Inversión de la República Dominicana (CEI-RD) fueron los patrocinadores también.

Renewable Energy – Dr. Virgilio Malagon, CNE Adviser

Dr. Virgilio Malagon, Adviser to the President of the National Energy Commission of the Dominican Republic (Comision Nacional de Energia), discusses (en espanol) the recent October and December conferences on renewable energy.  Dr. David Stillman, PPAF Executive Director, also provides comments (in English).  The interviewer is Enriquillo Rivas, host of Sabado Agropecuario, Revista 110 TV.   The interview took place on 5 December 2009.

 Bioenergy, RJS Group and Ethanol in the D.R.

Lic. Rafael Fernandez, Chairman/CEO, RJS Group Republica Dominicana, S.A., describes his company’s investment and pilot project for ethanol production.  The interviewer is Manuel Gonzalez Tejera, co-host, Sabado Agropecuario, Revista 110 TV.  The interview took place on 21 November 2009.

You can watch these and other videos on PPAF’s YouTube Channel, and subscribe to receive updates automatically.

To support the work of the Public-Private Alliance Foundation, go to the Donate page on the PPAF website.