Public-Private Partnerships for Sustainable Development

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. 

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

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.

This is your opportunity to visit the Southern coastal city of Jacmel, home to artisans and the arts, historic buildings that predate New Orleans, beautiful beaches and a developing tourist site.  Jacmel 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.  Jacmel, as the main city in Southeastern Haiti, offers important prospects for reconstruction, for business and for development toward a bright future.   The government of Haiti has proposed Jacmel for placement on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

PPAF and SImACT, Inc., will hold the event  Reconstruction and Business Opportunities in Southern Haiti  at the Cap Lamandou Hotel in Jacmel on 12-13 June.    The event will focus on areas of development and business  selected by participants.   Possible areas include: 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, art & artisans and other topics identified by registrants.  Participants 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.

Cost of the Jacmel side trip is $100, payable to the Public-Private Alliance Foundation.  See the Registration Form, which should be submitted and paid by June 1. 

This event will immediately follow the Building A New Haiti conference, which will be held from 9 to 11 June north of Port-au-Prince (at Club Indigo, Cote des Arcadins, Montrouis).   PPAF / SImACT will provide transportation from Club Indigo to Jacmel on Saturday morning, June 12, and return to Port-au-Prince on June 13, to those who register for this. Space is limited. Please register by 1 June using this Registration Form

 PLEASE NOTE:  If you wish to stay additional days, please write to  ppafoundation@gmail.com for details.

Two weeks ago I traveled by road to Haiti from Santo Domingo, D.R., with Dominican and American colleagues.  The purpose was to review local conditions, seek opportunities for establishing small and medium enterprises, and to collaborate with Haitian-American colleagues, Haitians, Dominicans and others to help rebuild the devastated infrastructure and livelihoods.   Before traveling I met with people from the World Food Program and the UN High Commission for Refugees.

Map of Haiti

Our focus would be on Jacmel, on the southern coast, in collaboration with the Haitian-American investment group Société Immobilière de Agriculture, Commerce et Tourisme, Inc., (SImACT) .  Our team identified priorities and made initial preparations for a workshop on investment and commerce to revive Southern Haiti.  This is scheduled to take place in Jacmel in late June.      

En route we visited tent camps near the border and encountered the diversity of conditions we would see throughout the trip.   One camp dealing with post-operative care was well-equipped by Harvard University and USAID.   Another, for displaced families, run by the American Refugee Committee and assisted by UNICEF, was more basic.   A third was “do-it-yourself.”  

I wanted to learn how people were faring.   I was interested in how people were cooking their meals, and confirmed charcoal and wood had become more scarce and more expensive since the earthquake. I explained that one of our concerns was to promote better, clean cookstoves and ethanol fuel.  The ARC camp supervisor was delighted and the woman below gave me permission to take this photo of her using a charcoal stove.

Woman cooking on a charcoal stove

We traveled to Port-au-Prince, Leogane and Jacmel.  Many people remained in great distress; others at first sight appeared to be going about their daily lives.   In some cases destroyed and intact buildings were side-by-side.  One could see tents in front of houses and encampments in schoolyards, churchyards and public sites.  There were still people with little shelter from sun and rain – sometimes a bedsheet attached to sticks.  

Parts of Port-au-Prince were untouched; other parts were devastated.  The image of the demolished Presidential palace has become known worldwide.  Leogâne, with a population of about 150,000, suffered heavily.  Much was destroyed. Jacmel had been cut off by mountain landslides.  The route was reopened but still vulnerable in the coming rainy season.

Maternity Ward at Jacmel Hospital reduced to rubble

The charming port town of Jacmel, with a population of about 50,000, had been damaged.  Its hospital had been destroyed.  Sections of town had been flattened.  But we could also see early possibilities for economic and social reconstruction.  With the national policy focus on decentralization and the international attention coming to Haiti for rebuilding, we felt that Jacmel could be a center for recovery and improvement.   Jacmel has been known as a site for Haitian tourism and the arts.  Its historic district, much of which was slated for demolition after the earthquake, has been spared, at least for now. 

There is great need to strengthen the infrastructure and services people need – from the hospital to the schools to the port.  Then there is room for imagination and creativity.  SImACT and PPAF confirmed their intent to organize the workshop on investment and commerce, with topics that could include infrastructure, renewable energy, ethanol cookstoves, housing, agriculture and agribusiness, social venture capital, health, historic district, tourism and arts and artisans.  The outcomes of this workshop can help Haiti Build Back Better.

Historic building near port of Jacmel

David Stillman, PhD

Executive Director

Public-Private Alliance Foundation