Date: 2024-05-15 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00004180
Country ... Haiti
Earthquake response
Communication from Jonathan Cloud ... Fairleigh Dickerson University's Role in the Sustainable Reconstruction of Haiti
Burgess COMMENTARY
Peter Burgess
FDU's Role in the Sustainable Reconstruction of Haiti
I'm pleased to report that based on Joel's conversation with President Adams on Friday, FDU is planning to step up and play a significant role in developing an action plan for the sustainable redevelopment of Haiti.
Adams is the president-elect of the Internatonal Association of University Presidents, and as such has been invited along with thirty or forty other university presidents to brief Bill Clinton on the future of Haiti.
He is interested in putting a proposal on the table at the meeting with Clinton that would build on the ideas presented in our recent discussion paper, Haiti - A Way Forward, which was apparently well received by those he forwarded it to.
One possible suggestion would be for FDU to convene a small conference, in collaboration with several other organizations, to bring together some of the key people to develop an overall action plan that responds to the needs of the country in the context of the larger crisis facing the planet.
Hosting such a conference (preferably in a central location such as Miami, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, or even in Haiti itself if this is feasible), could lead to a consensus around the elements of a sustainable future in Haiti - ecological regeneration, sustainable agriculture, distributed clean energy generation, carbon sequestration, entrepreneurial support, and educational development for the people and communities of Haiti.
This conference would begin by looking at what has or will already have been accomplished by the relief effort in Haiti, in all sectors - to establish a baseline in terms of ecological, economic, and social development, including the health, nutrition, and other needs of the surviving population. It would then look at an optimal long-term outcome, and the mechanisms needed to achieve local resilience, ecological regeneration, economic wellbeing, political reconstruction, and educational advancement.
I welcome your ideas and suggestions around this. Joel has asked me to draft a very brief proposal (1-2 pages), that Michael can put forward to those leading the overall reconstruction effort, for us to play this role, in the anticipation that the resulting plan will help to identify, among many other things, the higher-education needs of the country that we and others could contribute to in collaboration with those on the ground seeking to rebuild their colleges and universities. Please let me know what you think should be included in this.
In the meantime I have been going over my notes from the conference call, looking at grant opportunities, and following up on some specific requests and suggestions from several individuals including NGOs on the ground, companies open to pursuing initiatives in Haiti, and keeping up with the actions of other significant actors.
I am planning to be in Miami for the Sustainable Haiti conference March 17-19 and also looking to meet some key people involved with Haiti who are located there.
And I have started putting together the 'coordination and collaboration' web site that several people have requested, to help keep everyone informed of sustainability initiatives in Haiti, especially opportunities that will combine both long-term sustainability and self-sufficiency needs with current local economic development initiatives. Please feel free to respond to me individually if you want to discuss specific ideas and proposals. Thanks.
My best regards,
Jonathan Cloud
Dear Colleagues
There is a lot in this message that I am pleased to see. It is a useful supplement to the Paper of February 20 by Kent Fairfield and Jonathan Cloud and the conference call of February 28.
I will try to bring the Tr-Ac-Net Community Analytics (CA) initiative into line with what is now being outlined ... but I would observe that (1) there is a very big planning exercise now going on in Haiti involving the Government of Haiti, many emergency relief and development organization including the UN, the World Bank, NGOs and bilateral donors, not to mention 300 or so consultants; and, that (2) the end product of this work will be used on March 31 as a basis for pledging post emergency relief and development assistance for Haiti.
My expectation is that this plan will have a focus on what the government needs to have funds for ... and will not have very much that engages the 9 million people of Haiti in a meaningful way. I have been assured by several observers that the UN and others are planning to pass funds 'round' the government, and not 'through' the government, but I am still unconvinced that this will actually serve to bring in a people centric or community centric development focus. In previous I have found that funds flowing 'round' government are as much or even more subject to abuse than those that were controlled within government ... weak accountability is a problem whatever the organization!
My hope is that there can be a plan for people focused development or community focused development that supplements the official government plan, and that this can be available before March 31st so that this may be available for discussion at that time. Furthermore, I see this supplemental plan as a powerful way to 'channel' diaspora support for tangible activities in Haiti. Channeling will be much more efficient than trying to arrange for coordination ... bottom up versus top down. In this development model there is coordination at the community level with reach out to those that might be able to help.
Most of the material needed to have a supplementary plan of this sort is already available ... there are 'holes' but the framework can be built with what is available.
Another advantage of community centric development activities is that accountability is facilitated. The place does not move ... whereas an organization can easily be here today and gone tomorrow.
There are many initiatives to have workshops, conferences, etc. For some people these are very valuable and they do not mind the cost in money and time ... and they obtain information and contacts. For me they are expensive in money and time ... the information that is shared at a conference can also be shared in other ways ... and I hope to build contacts in other ways as well. In the CA methodology, a less expensive way of planning and support is called for!
A funding mechanism is needed so that there can be development that is sustainable both economically and environmentally. The microfinance sector should be part of this, but augmented with financing that is more robust to support the SME sector and essential community level infrastructure and community organizations like cooperatives. The microfinance industry now has the microfinance investment vehicle (MIV) and it would be good for Haiti to have a similar financing vehicle for expansion of enterprise financing in Haiti.
With regard to collaboration with the work of President Clinton and Dr. Farmer ... this is very important. I would very much like the Tr-Ac-Net Community Analytics (CA) initiative to help with a supplemental development plan for community level activities to be in front of them as soon as possible. How this works with the plans outlined, I am not sure.
In haste ...
Sincerely
Peter Burgess
Great news, Jonathon. I am impressed by the efforts and coalescing of this workgroup. Bravo everyone + kudos to Jonathon for providing the leadership + energy.
It is unclear (to me) the sequence of things... Pres Clinton, then the conference or the other way around?
It seems like our group's immediate efforts should focus on the IAUP message to Pres Clinton.
For these 40 IAUP representatives, this is the ultimate elevator speech. It needs to be concise, compelling and helpful!
First, what people around the other 40 U prez's developing? Are there other groups like us at some of these schools? How to unite our messages before the 40 Prez's try to develop something? In short--how to do the staff work to supply the right message?
What message? Pres Clinton is way out in front of most everyone, so he will have heard almost anything we can dream up.
What can Universities do? Many things, but not everything. Focus on where we can help + avoid talking points that are better covered by Wall St., A+E firms, etc.
What is the ultimate BIG vision? This may be where we can contribute most... Framing a desired end state and sketching out a path forward that acknowledges the challenges, conflicting interests, and tradeoffs.
The topic with which I entered this conversation and want to see considered in the deliberations: resilient infrastructure. If we work really hard to reconstruct Haiti allowing it to be 'below code' and then in 2025 another EQ wreaks the same havoc all over again, shame on us for allowing another death trap to be built.
Resilience is one of many pilars to a 'Sustainable Haiti', but I believe a necessary one.
Mitchell D Erickson
DHS S&T
Cell: 202-255-2312
Hi Peter:
Thank you for your thoughtful and straightforward comments; I agree with much of what you say, and am not putting everything into just what the University decides to do. Still, I am encouraged by the response to our discussion paper, which openly stated that we need to embrace new models of economic development, and break with the history of failed policies. The mandate from Michael Adams is specifically to propose an 'alternative action plan' for Haiti, though the University's inclination is to bring people together to discuss this rather than to put forward its own plan that reflects what we think needs to be done.
I think you are right to wonder where exactly this will lead us, since the goal is to get the reconstruction effort on the right track, and it seems like that is what is currently being discussed and decided by those working at that level. At the same time, this is probably our best opportunity to influence the larger strategy, and to have an influence over time on the outcomes.
I think the University can also plan a useful role in rebuilding (higher) education, and I want to encourage this. There is a willingness to provide some very practical kinds of training, as well as to offer more global education.
So it does seem like an opportunity to influence some of the outcomes, at least over time if not immediately, since as you say much is being discussed and decided by the principal actors right now. We need to try to keep track of this, and of the reactions to it, so that we know what is already in motion.
I believe that the goal of much of the current planning is to develop a process similar to the one used in Aceh after the tsunami; Bill Clinton has mentioned this as a model several times, and others have been writing about it as well - see, amongst other things,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/28/AR2010012803561.html
This is not something I am an expert on, so I hope to learn more about it as things go along.
But once the outlines of the 'master plan' are clearer, we do need to look at it from the perspective you mention: to what extent does it engage the Haitian people in a meaningful way?
Following the money is of course a critical part of this. How and to what extent we are able to do this is another matter. I agree that whether the money goes through or around the government is not as important as how it is used, and preventing waste, fraud, and abuse is a critical task that we must keep drawing attention to.
I was also recently impressed by the idea that rather than focusing mainly on the problems, we look for things that are working in spite of everything, even on a small scale, and try to expand those.
With regard to creating 'a plan for people focused development or community focused development that supplements the official government plan,' at this point I believe the best that we can do is to try to keep track of what people in all sectors are saying and keep reporting this and feeding it into whatever planning and discussion channels we have access to. If you have specific suggestions for this I would welcome them. I have started to put together a web site - with the tools I am most familiar with - at http://ASustainableHaiti.org. This is still very much 'under development,' and not publicly listed with the search engines yet, but it's my attempt to do what several people suggested on the call. I welcome your input here also.
With regard to connecting all this up with the 'Tr-Ac-Net Community Analytics (CA),' please say more about this. Perhaps we can put up a page or section on the site that references this, or interconnect in some other ways. If you have a proposal or write-up we can look to see if we can include it in what we are submitting for funding. I look forward to continuing our collaboration. Thanks.
Hello,
This is Sarah Brownell, co-founder of SOIL. I met with Jonathan Cloud and others at FDU a few weeks ago.
I wanted to add a few comments:
One of the problems over the past few decades in Haiti is that money has been sent around the government rather than through it…making it virtually unable to operate. (This was sometimes done to influence politics…) It is difficult for the government to have authority (collect taxes, provide security) if it can’t ever do anything for the people. So I wouldn’t be afraid to work with the current government, especially on a local scale. Start with smaller projects and require accountability, once they prove themselves, let the projects get bigger. Many local leaders are not trained for their jobs…the mayor of one town I work in was previously a 4th grade teacher, for example. They need to learn how to be accountable. But many I have met have vision, love for their community, and the support of the people. It may take some time to find the right people to work with. Don’t be discouraged by failures…that’s why it is best to start with small projects. Small-time corruption seems to be ingrained in the culture, especially when the funding is coming from outside. People accept it, but they don’t like it or think it is right, they just haven’t been empowered to change it. With insistence on good bookkeeping and reporting (with training on how to do that), I think that you will be fine.
Dr. Farmer should be very receptive to community level activities. That’s his thing, really.
Take care,
Sarah
7 messages
From: Jonathan Cloud
Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 2:02 PM
To: 'Cohen, Maurie'
Director, Sustainable Business Incubator Program
Institute for Sustainable Enterprise
Fairleigh Dickinson University
http://fdu.edu/sbi jcloud@fdu.edu
http://SustainableBusinessIncubator.com
College at Florham M-MS1-05
285 Madison Avenue
Madison, NJ 07940
Office 908-306-9075 Cell 908-581-8418
Peter Burgess
Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 3:46 PM
To: Jonathan Cloud
Cc: 'Cohen, Maurie'
Community Analytics (CA)
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Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net Inc ... The Transparency and Accountability Network
Community Analytics (CA)
Integrated Malaria Management (IMM)
Microfinance Focus Magazine in New York
website: www.tr-ac-net.org
tel: 917 432 1191 or 212 772 6918 or 212 744 6469
email: peterbnyc@gmail.com
skype: peterburgessnyc
Books: Search Peter Burgess at www.lulu.com
Erickson, Mitchell
Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 6:26 PM
To: jcloud@fdu.edu, mcohen@adm.njit.edu, PDurand@njeda.com, 'Erickson, Mitchell D'
Cc: jHarmon444@aol.com
From: Jonathan Cloud
Jonathan Cloud
Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 12:24 PM
To: Peter Burgess
Cc: Kent Fairfield
and http://www.odihpn.org/report.asp?id=2879.
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solidarite ak zanmitaj
Tue, Mar 9, 2010 at 11:55 AM
To: Peter Burgess
Cc: 'Cohen, Maurie'
From: Peter Burgess [mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 07, 2010 3:47 PM
To: Jonathan Cloud
Cc: Cohen, Maurie; Paula Durand; Mitch Erickson; Kent Fairfield; Gerard Farias; Jeanne Goetz; Jan Graff; Debra Italiano; Pamela Kraft; Jo Anne Murphy; Brad Neilley; Matthew Polsky; Bill Russell; sandlerlori; Hugh Scott; Christine Eibs Singer; Dan Twomey; Vin Vajjhala; Jeana Wirtenberg; Victoria Zelin; Rene Aubry; Patrick A Berzinski; jason brown; Sarah Brownell; Karla Canavan; Thomas A Capone; Haitian Americans United For Change; Sonu Chhina; Doug Cohen; Christopher Thayer Cory; Diana Cvitan; Michael Dabbene; Allison DePasquale; Robert T Dombrowski; James Dubreze; Harvey Dupiton; Fr Joseph Farias; Zaheer Jan; Jason R. Jawidzik; Andrew Jones; Malcolm Kahn; Jay Kappraff; Kelly A Lefebrvre; Namunu Meegoda; Dermot Murray; Barrie Peterson; Lawrence Pratt; Ethan Roland; Sai Sankar; Ton Vriens; Brian Warshawsky; Michael Weinstein; Paul Winstanley; Madeleine Lansky; John Rosser; Joel Harmon
Subject: Re: FDU's Role in the Sustainable Reconstruction of Haiti
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Peter Burgess