Sustainable Help for Haiti

Sustainable Help for Haiti requires more Coordination by Relief Organizations in the Field.
Haiti workshop raises awareness of the challenges on the side of global civic society.

The workshop „Haiti – How Can Global Civic Society Provide Sustainable Help?”, took place on 1 June in Brussels at the initiative of SOS Children’s Villages Global Partner. At this workshop, possibilities for better-coordinated cooperation of relief organizations were discussed. The 20 participants, mostly representatives of foundations involved in Haiti, debated on the still critical situation of the earthquake-devastated country, and collectively searched for solutions to improve the coordination of aid by Non-Government organizations (NGOs). There was, most notably, agreement that integration of the Haitian people in joint relief efforts is essential for sustainable redevelopment. Continuing individual discussions between SOS Global Partner and the participants are planned.

„Scarcely half a year after the earthquake, the situation in Haiti is still very critical. Some 500 international organizations provided the first emergency aid, but most have retreated again by now. However, the Haitian state has not yet begun to function again properly and is not yet able to coordinate civilian help”, explains Dr. Christian Gruenler, Managing Director of SOS Children’s Villages Global Partner.

Celigny Darius, National Director of SOS Children’s Villages in Haiti and the only Haitian participant of the workshop, adds „If the NGOs work separately from each other, the one doesn’t know what the other is doing. Cooperation is, therefore, very important for the country’s development.”

The work of non-government organizations is fundamentally different from state aid: state aid was coordinated via the United Nations at the donor conference in New York and is not specifically tied to direct projects. The work of NGOs is in contrast often projectspecific and the NGOs work independently from one another. In the case of Haiti, it is currently neither known how many NGOs are active in the country nor in which way they are specifically active. The workshop, which took place during the annual meeting of the European Foundation Center (EFC), brought representatives of some of these NGOs together.

During the meeting, representatives of the different organizations also discussed how to support the country’s sustainable redevelopment with the help of joint projects. It was agreed upon that in much the same way, Haitians should be closely integrated into the work.

An initial concrete possibility for cooperation could already be explored during the workshop with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). As an example of possible results, this might lead to the IDB co-financing SOS Children’s Villages’ educational measures and projects in Haiti, Latin America and the Caribbean.

“SOS Children’s Villages Global Partner’s workshop was a first important step on the way to improving the coordination of relief agencies in the field. We look forward to further discussions with SOS Children’s Villages and hope that more organizations will join forces to support Haiti’s development,” said Luis Alberto Fierro, Resource Mobilization Coordinator at IDB.

What is the current situation in Haiti like? Which relief efforts are necessary in order to help the people sustainably? Celigny Darius, Director of SOS Children’s Villages in Haiti, talks about this in a telephone interview.

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