On March 13 and 14, 2010, Jesuit Refugee and Migra­tion Ser­vice – Domini­can Repub­lic hosted a bina­tional meet­ing between Hait­ian and Domini­can civil soci­ety groups. Forty-seven civil soci­ety groups attended this bina­tional meet­ing, includ­ing 26 Hait­ian NGOs, 17 Domini­can NGOs, and four inter­na­tion­ally based civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions.  Fol­low­ing the meet­ing the 26 Hait­ian groups, led by Colette Lespinasse, of GARR, addressed the Domini­can Press.  While these Hait­ian civil soci­ety orga­ni­za­tions appre­ci­ate the gen­eros­ity of the inter­na­tional com­mu­nity in the face of unspeak­able tragedy, they decried what they view as the remark­able exclu­sion of Hait­ian voices in the Donors’ con­fer­ence in Santo Domingo.  To such an end, they hope the New York Donor’s Con­fer­ence planned for the end of the month will involve more out­reach to the Hait­ian civil soci­ety community.

Hait­ian NGOs Decry Total Exclu­sion from Donors’ Con­fer­ences on Hait­ian Reconstruction

March 18, 2010

SANTO DOMINGO .- More than 26 orga­ni­za­tions and social move­ments in Haiti reported that the process estab­lished for for­mu­lat­ing the “Plan for Recon­struc­tion of Haiti” at the donors’ con­fer­ence that con­cluded yes­ter­day in Santo Domingo has been char­ac­ter­ized by an almost total exclu­sion of Hait­ian social actors and civil soci­ety, and  very lim­ited par­tic­i­pa­tion by unco­or­di­nated rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Hait­ian State.

The path set for the recon­struc­tion of Haiti in the National Plan of Post-Disaster Assess­ment may not meet the expec­ta­tions of the Hait­ian peo­ple as it fails to address sus­tain­able devel­op­ment needs, and instead focuses on restor­ing old devel­op­ment plans, rather than com­plete reori­en­ta­tion of the Hait­ian devel­op­ment model.

“We regret that this doc­u­ment, pro­duced by a group of 300 tech­nocrats, is pre­sented to donors first, with­out first hav­ing exhausted a broad process of con­sul­ta­tion with Hait­ian civil society.

We believe that the meet­ing sched­uled for March 19 with some orga­ni­za­tions of civil soci­ety in Port au Prince is no sub­sti­tute for the actual mech­a­nisms of par­tic­i­pa­tion of the var­i­ous com­po­nents of Hait­ian soci­ety in defin­ing their col­lec­tive future.

The cri­sis gen­er­ated by the earth­quake chal­lenges us to ini­ti­ate an alter­na­tive process aimed at defin­ing a new national project, envis­ag­ing seri­ous strate­gies to over­come exclu­sion, and eco­nomic and polit­i­cal depen­dence. Through this new ori­en­ta­tion it is pos­si­ble to move toward a new era of pros­per­ity. We need to part with the old par­a­digms that have been fol­lowed up until now and develop an inclu­sive process of mobi­liza­tion of social actors. To achieve this it is nec­es­sary to do the following:

1. Break with exclu­sion. Break­ing this dynamic is an essen­tial con­di­tion for true inte­gra­tion, based on social jus­tice and for the strength­en­ing of national cohe­sion. This involves the par­tic­i­pa­tion and mobi­liza­tion of social forces tra­di­tion­ally excluded such as women, peas­ants, youth, arti­sans and so on. It also means tar­geted invest­ment on the part of offi­cial insti­tu­tions asso­ci­ated with cur­rent exclu­sion, and the rein­ven­tion of the Hait­ian state, whose prac­tice should be geared towards trans­parency, insti­tu­tional integrity, social jus­tice, respect for diver­sity, and human rights.

2. Break with eco­nomic depen­dence. Build an eco­nomic model that encour­ages domes­tic pro­duc­tion, with empha­sis on agri­cul­ture and agro-industry turned first to the sat­is­fac­tion of our food needs (cere­als, tubers, milk, fruits and fish, meat etc.).

This new model should not be dom­i­nated by the logic of exces­sive accu­mu­la­tion of wealth or spec­u­la­tion, but ori­ented towards the wel­fare of the peo­ple, appre­ci­a­tion of national cul­ture and the recov­ery of our national forests. It should also reduce depen­dence on fos­sil fuels by pro­mot­ing a shift towards the use of the vast reserves of renew­able energy avail­able in our country.

3. Break with the exces­sive cen­tral­iza­tion of power and util­i­ties. Develop a gov­er­nance plan based on decen­tral­iza­tion of deci­sions, ser­vices and resources and strength­en­ing the capac­i­ties of local gov­ern­ments and the estab­lish­ment of mech­a­nisms to ensure the direct par­tic­i­pa­tion of actors of civil soci­ety in Haiti.

4. Break with the cur­rent destruc­tive land own­er­ship poli­cies. Imple­ment a process of reor­ga­niz­ing the phys­i­cal space in rural areas and cities, allow­ing the devel­op­ment of pub­lic spaces and social insti­tu­tions and resources, such as pub­lic schools, pub­lic parks, hous­ing, etc.. This involves con­duct­ing com­pre­hen­sive agrar­ian reform and urban reform which would enable solu­tions for the hun­dreds of thou­sands of peo­ple who are home­less. To meet these chal­lenges it is nec­es­sary to rede­fine the role of the state and its functioning.

Build­ing a new model of devel­op­ment requires a com­pre­hen­sive, con­sis­tent and wide­spread mobi­liza­tion of pop­u­lar sec­tors with an inter­est in decen­tral­iza­tion and greater access to pub­lic resources and ser­vices (health, edu­ca­tion, clean water, san­i­ta­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, power and hous­ing). Those who were tra­di­tion­ally exploited and excluded should be the main pro­tag­o­nists in this process.

This national project that we fore­see for the sus­tain­able devel­op­ment of Haiti, must allow a new sys­tem of pub­lic edu­ca­tion that facil­i­tates access to qual­ity edu­ca­tion for all chil­dren, with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion, valu­ing the Cre­ole lan­guage spo­ken by all peo­ple, rais­ing aware­ness in favor of strong envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion, focus­ing on the pre­vent­ing fur­ther vul­ner­a­bil­ity to nat­ural disasters.

It is nec­es­sary to reor­ga­nize the health sys­tem with hos­pi­tals in var­i­ous depart­ments, val­u­a­tion of tra­di­tional med­i­cine, and par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to women’s health.

Reor­ga­ni­za­tion of the jus­tice sys­tem will facil­i­tate access to jus­tice for all and will fight against cor­rup­tion. We want a state that has the abil­ity to man­age and direct the coun­try, a state capa­ble of tak­ing the lead and coor­di­nat­ing inter­na­tional aid efforts.

In terms of inter­na­tional rela­tions, the coun­try must develop new rela­tion­ships with friendly coun­tries, strength­en­ing our abil­ity to defend our inter­ests and fos­ter­ing friend­ship among states and peo­ples. With the Domini­can Repub­lic we must for­mal­ize rela­tion­ships around var­i­ous issues, includ­ing trade, bina­tional mar­kets, and migrants rights.

We request the can­cel­la­tion of all of Haiti’s debts. The tragedy of the earth­quake should not cause Haiti to spi­ral into greater indebtedness.

The social insti­tu­tions and NGOs that have signed this state­ment call for mobi­liza­tion and soon will under­take to orga­nize an Assem­bly for the Hait­ian Peo­ple to address the chal­lenges and to define strate­gies for the alter­na­tive and sus­tain­able recon­struc­tion of our country.

Signed:

PAPDA, JURISHA, ENFOFANM, GAAR, Fon­da­tion TOYA, AFASDA, Gam­mit Tim­oun, GIDH Group ente­van­syon, MPP, CROSE, KSIL, KONAREPA, PADAD, MOREPLA, SOFA, Mou­ve­ment sco­laire Foi et Joie, Media Alter­na­tive, Comis­sion Epis­co­pale Nationale Jus­tice et Paix, CHANDEL, ICPJLDH,REBA, TKL, Cel­lule Réflex­ions et d’Actions Sj, Con­fédéra­tion des Haï­tiens pour la Réc­on­cil­i­a­tion, VEDEK, CODHA

Par­tic­i­pants in the March 13–14 Conference

Haití

1. PAPDA

2. JURISHA

3. ENFOFANM

4. GAAR

5. Fon­da­tion TOYA

6. AFASDA

7. Gam­mit Timoun

8. GIDH Group entevansyon

9. MPP

10. CROSE

11. KSIL

12. KONAREPA

13. PADAD

14. MOREPLA

15. SOFA

16. Mou­ve­ment sco­laire Foi et Joie

17. Alter­Press

18. Comis­sion Epis­co­pale Nationale Jus­tice et Paix

19. CHANDEL

20. ICPJLDH

21. REBA

22. TKL

23. Cel­lule Réflex­ions et d’Actions Jésuites

24. Con­fédéra­tion des Haï­tiens pour la Réconciliation

25. VEDEK

26. CODHA

Domini­can Republic

27. Cen­tro Cul­tural Poveda

28. Red Ciudadana

29. PROGRESSIO

30. Plataforma Ayuda Haití

31. SJRM

32. Uni­ver­si­dad Autónoma de Santo Domingo

33. CIPAF

34. Cuidad Alternativa

35. Comité Domini­cano DDHH

36. Red Urbana Popular

37. Con­fed­eración Nacional de Unidad Sindical

38. Redesol — IDEAC

39. COOPHABITAT

40. Coop­er­a­tiva Unión Integral

41. COPADEBA

42. Foro Social Alternativo

43. Artic­u­lación Campesina (ANC)

Inter­na­tional

44. Alianza Inter­na­tional de Habi­tantes (AIH)

45. Asam­blea de los Pueb­los del Caribe

46. CASAL de Sol­i­dar­i­tat con Amer­ica Cen­tral de Prat de Llobregat.

47. Manos Unidas España