The Working Group for a Sustainable Future for Haiti is a joint initiative of the Sustainable Leadership Forum and the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at Fairleigh Dickinson University, with the help of many other groups and individuals. It was originally convened at the request of Mitch Erickson, Director, Northeast Operations (ST-1301), Science and Technology Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The following summary is from the original Haiti page at the SLF web site:
Along with other organizations, the Sustainable Leadership Forum is taking steps to help foster a conversation for the sustainable reconstruction of Haiti. This page will list and summarize some of the actions we and others are taking.
Here was our first post on this topic: Toward a Sustainable Future for Haiti (February 5, 2010).
The discussion paper mentioned in this article is here: Haiti-AWayForward-Feb2010 (February 20, 2010), and a follow-up conference call is scheduled for Sunday, February 28, 2010, at 6 p.m. EST. See the latest posting for dial-in and access information.
I followed up the original article with Further Defining Our Role in Developing a Sustainable Future for Haiti, which was sent out as an email on February 13 to our discussion group.
We also added our Haiti initiative to the agenda on February 13 and covered the following points:
• Extent of Devastation • Previous Conditions • History of Our Initiative: Mitch Erickson, ISE, Green Planet, UN • One step at a time – posting at SLForum.org -> TMP telcom • FWA – E&Co, GE, Bunge, EcoSecurities • Treehugger • Global Green • UN Association Haiti • Miami Conference • Challenges
Challenges: • Immediate Recovery • Coordination • Special interests vs. public interest • History and political culture • Local engagement • Time frames • Investments & ROI • Leverage • Funding
Since then we’ve added Investing in Haiti, a brief article on Vin Vajjhala’s microfinance initiatives, and Haiti – A Way Forward, which provides the Working Group’s discussion paper and access information for the February 28 conference call.
As noted, prior to that we’re participating in the UN Haiti conference – “Haiti Re-Building Against All Odds: Fostering Partnerships,” http://unahaiti.org/our_events – on Wednesday, February 24 in NYC, and have now posted a report on that. Our latest update and the draft agenda for the conference call is now being circulated for comment.
And here’s information on the Miami conference that we may attend in March: http://www.haiticonference.com.
Finally, some good news: according to a recent Washington Post story, the earthquake seems to have caused little or no further damage to Haiti’s ecosystem: Haitian earthquake seems to have had little impact on country’s ecosystem.
Here are some of the important links we have uncovered:
- Rick Steves article in USA Today – http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/02/column-haiti-behind-door-no-3-difficult-questions-await-.html
- F. William Engdahl: The Fateful Geological Prize Called Haiti – http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=17287
- Haiti Permaculture site: http://www.permaculturehaiti.org/ (recently moved to http://www.permaculturerelief.org/
- Permaculture and related organizations in Haiti: http://www.permaculturerelief.org/links
- Global Green USA: http://www.globalgreen.org/
- Treehugger interview with Matt Petersen: http://www.globalgreen.org/news/415 and http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/building-a-new-sustainable-haiti.php
- PBS coverage: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/haiti.html
- NPR stories: http://www.npr.org/search/index.php?searchinput=haiti
- UNEP: Major environmental issues arising for Haiti recovery
- MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti): http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/minustah/
Some of the key things we are interested in are
- infrastructure, esp. waste and sewage treatment
- clean water
- energy generation
- ecosystem regeneration
- entrepreneurship
- microfinance
- carbon credits and other clean development mechanisms
- using permaculture design principles
- fostering both local economic development and sustainability
- balancing environmental regeneration principles and local socio-cultural demands and needs
Some interesting discussions of the role of microfinance generally, and specifically in Haiti:
- http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2010/02/09/microfinance-will-not-end-poverty-microfinance-institutions-will/
- http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/01/25/loans_seen_as_no_solution_for_haitis_poorest/
- http://www.microcapital.org/microcapital-brief-microfinance-institutions-launch-fundraising-efforts-to-help-haitian-earthquake-victims/
- http://www.cgap.org/p/site/c/template.rc/1.26.12613/
- http://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/content/search.html?q=haiti
- http://www.csrwire.com/press/press_release/20285-Oklahoma-Bank-Partners-with-Haitian-Microfinance-Institution-to-Fight-Poverty
- http://www.microfinancefocus.com/news/2010/01/30/microfinance-institutions-step-forward-to-lend-a-helping-hand-to-quake-hit-haiti/
- http://www.microfinance.com/#Haiti
- http://www.microfinancegateway.org/p/site/m/template.rc/1.1.4138/
- http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/02/podcast_entrepreneurship_in_ha.html
We have a growing email list of those interested in playing a role in this initiative. If you would like to be added to this list, please email me at jcloud@slforum.org.
Finally, beware of scams. We just received this email and reported it to Snopes for investigation, but “Help Haiti Foundation International” is not a recognized charity or NGO, and the following is most likely a “phishing” attack (an attempt to get your information in order to subsequently perpetrate a scam):
Envelope-to: jcloud@gotco.com
Reply-To: <foundationhaiti@yahoo.com.ph>
From: “Haiti Foundation”<haiti2victims@yahoo.com.ph>
Subject: Haiti Victims
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:59:30 +0100
X-Priority: 3
Hello,
My name is Kelvin Richardson of Help Haiti Foundation International. Our NGO has been taking care of a group of children and pregnant women who have been victims of the recent Haiti Earthquake disaster, by providing food, drug clothing and treatment to victims in our temporary emergency camp in South West Haiti. We have been doing everything in our capacity to fend for the victims of the disaster and we have been soliciting for funds to meet up with the need of the victims in our custody in addition to private donations from generous donors worldwide. We have been running enlightenment campaigns and we have some donors who are willing to make donations to assist this project.
We have donors who have been making generous donations to our organization for assist as relief materials to victims of this disaster. Due to the lack of available time and different forms of donations, from our American and European donors, we hereby need you as a collector in USA who would act as a representative, collecting payments on our behalf.
Job Specifics:
1. Collection of Donations / Payments
2. Cashing of Donations / Payments
3. Sending cashed donation/payments to our organization following Our Instructions.
4. Keeping Record of each donation / payment received and sent.
Note that your commission for being our representative is 10% per payment received and cashed. If you are interested in working with us, reply to specifically to __ (with the following details):
Full Names:
Address:
Mailing Address/Zip Code:
Telephone Number and Mobile Number:
Country:
Age:
Present Occupation:
After two months of working with us, you would be invited on our own expense paid trip to the disaster site and visitation to the rehabilitated victims.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Kelvin Richardson
Snopes’ response was:
See http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/reshipper.asp for our write-up about this scam.
The details are different, but the story is the same.
