Wash­ing­ton, DC

March 16, 2010

The United States, in coop­er­a­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti, will join the United Nations in co-hosting a ministerial-level Inter­na­tional Donors’ Con­fer­ence Towards a New Future for Haiti on March 31, 2010 in New York at UN Head­quar­ters. After the out­pour­ing of global sup­port for the imme­di­ate needs of the peo­ple and Gov­ern­ment of Haiti fol­low­ing the dev­as­tat­ing earth­quake on Jan­u­ary 12, atten­tion is now turn­ing to the longer-term recov­ery and recon­struc­tion needs of the coun­try, even while the relief effort con­tin­ues.
The Inter­na­tional Donors’ Con­fer­ence will be an oppor­tu­nity for the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity to pledge new finan­cial assis­tance to help Haiti rebuild, and to mobi­lize a truly global and sus­tained inter­na­tional effort to part­ner with Haiti. The Con­fer­ence will focus on pledges of assis­tance for recov­ery and devel­op­ment, as dis­tinct from the human­i­tar­ian assis­tance so gen­er­ously pro­vided by over 140 donors so far.
Pri­or­i­ties for assis­tance will be set by the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti, which will present its strat­egy for recov­ery based on input from a Post-Disaster Needs Assess­ment led by the Gov­ern­ment with the joint sup­port of the United Nations, World Bank, Inter-American Devel­op­ment Bank, Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, and major donors.
This Donors’ Con­fer­ence is just one step in mobi­liz­ing the broad inter­na­tional sup­port that the gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Haiti must have in order to real­ize their vision of a stronger, vibrant Haiti emerg­ing from this tragedy. We are proud to con­tribute to a broad-based effort that will inte­grate pub­lic and pri­vate inter­na­tional assis­tance with the con­tri­bu­tions of a vig­or­ous Hait­ian pri­vate sec­tor, active engage­ment of non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions, and wide­spread civic engage­ment. Prepa­ra­tion for the Inter­na­tional Donors’ Con­fer­ence thus includes broad-based con­sul­ta­tions with key con­stituen­cies, includ­ing Hait­ian civil soci­ety, the Hait­ian Dias­pora, the pri­vate sec­tor, Hait­ian state and local gov­ern­ment, non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions, and stake­hold­ers in the UN Sta­bi­liza­tion Mis­sion in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Rep­re­sen­ta­tives from these con­sul­ta­tions will report back to the ple­nary of the Inter­na­tional Donors’ Con­fer­ence.
The United States is pleased to be part­ner­ing with the United Nations in this effort in the inter­ests of mobi­liz­ing a truly global response on behalf of Haiti.

CONFERENCE DETAILS
The Inter­na­tional Donors’ Con­fer­ence will be co-hosted by the United States and United Nations, in coop­er­a­tion with the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti. The Con­fer­ence will be co-chaired by Brazil, Canada, the Euro­pean Union, France, and Spain as lead­ing donors to Haiti. The Con­fer­ence will be held at UN Head­quar­ters in New York on March 31, 2010. Del­e­ga­tions are encour­aged to be rep­re­sented at the min­is­te­r­ial level and will be invited to make brief state­ments sum­ma­riz­ing their new pledges of recov­ery and recon­struc­tion assis­tance. The Con­fer­ence will be web­cast live with select ses­sions open to other media.
Fur­ther details for del­e­ga­tions will be forth­com­ing in cor­re­spon­dence from the United Nations Office of Con­fer­ence Ser­vices and will also be avail­able through the UN Jour­nal
Par­tic­i­pants will be asked to pre-register for the Con­fer­ence through the Con­fer­ence web­site. Detailed infor­ma­tion on how to reg­is­ter, along with tech­ni­cal details on pledge con­tent and how to reg­is­ter pledges, will be forth­com­ing from UNDP.
Please note that this event is an oppor­tu­nity for UN mem­ber states to reg­is­ter national pledges of assis­tance to Haiti. Pri­vate sec­tor donors and oth­ers will have alter­na­tive oppor­tu­ni­ties to reg­is­ter their offers of assis­tance. Unfor­tu­nately, capac­ity con­sid­er­a­tions must limit the oppor­tu­nity to pledge assis­tance dur­ing the event on March 31 to UN mem­ber states, inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions, and rep­re­sen­ta­tives selected to report from the out­reach con­sul­ta­tions. .
PREPARATORY PROCESS
Con­fer­ence prepa­ra­tions include a series of out­reach con­sul­ta­tions with Hait­ian civil soci­ety (over the pre­ced­ing weeks, orga­nized by the United Nation’s Office of the UN Spe­cial Envoy to Haiti, MINUSTAH, NGO’s, and local com­mu­nity groups), the pri­vate sec­tor (March 15, in Haiti, orga­nized by the Inter-American Devel­op­ment Bank), the Hait­ian Dias­pora (March 21–23, in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., orga­nized by the Orga­ni­za­tion of Amer­i­can States), Hait­ian state and local gov­ern­ment (March 23, in Mar­tinique, orga­nized by the Gov­ern­ment of France), stake­hold­ers to MINUSTAH (March 23, in New York, orga­nized by the Gov­ern­ment of Brazil and the Gov­ern­ment of Haiti), and non-governmental orga­ni­za­tions (March 25, in New York, orga­nized by the Office of the UN Spe­cial Envoy to Haiti, Inter­Ac­tion, and the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion).
The Con­fer­ence will also be pre­ceded by a closed Prepara­tory Tech­ni­cal Meet­ing on March 15–17 in Santo Domingo, co-hosted by the Gov­ern­ment of the Domini­can Repub­lic and Haiti.
For media inquiries, please con­tact:
Car­olyn Vadino
Deputy Spokes­woman for the U.S. Mis­sion to the United Nations
212–415-4301