insights and experiences and understanding the challenges facing haiti as well as the opportunities for confronting these challenges as we move forward. many of us have been working for many years, since the 70s. often times we worry because haiti and its issues are never put on the front page of the newspaper so people don't understand what is taking place in haiti and the resilience of the haitian people and the beauty and strength of the haitian people. and how our policy has not really been what it should have been to support haiti and the people of haiti in a way that helps the haitian people move forward in terms of their development of the country. ..

>> to make sure haiti is not put on the back burner. there's such a wonderful historical relationship, members of congressional black caucus wanted to do this because we don't think many know about the special relationships the united states has with haiti and its history. and so this focus on haiti really is a focus on haiti, but

it's also a refocus on haiti. because i think we owe haiti and the haitian people at debt of gratitude. for standing with the united states in terms of the history of what has all happened as it relates to haiti and supporting efforts of the united states. and it's so important to recognize that, and to recognize that in our foreign policy also. and so i just want to thank you again. we have to run and vote. thank all the panelists. thank you all for coming. but just not congressional black caucus will continue as we always have worked on development, trade, aid, reconstruction, recovery, whatever it takes, debt cancellation which congresswoman waters, you heard our leader talk about how she championed that, and we're moving forward on the. but we are going to do everything to do to make sure that finally, once and for all, haiti receives the type of attention and commitment that it

has deserved. not only now, but historically. we got a lot to catch up, and a lot of making up, so we're going to turn this in to an opportunity in the memory of all of those who lost their lives and w have suffered tremendously from this most recent earthquake disaster. thank you again for being here. [applause] >> thank you, dr. christiansen. i was surprised to hear that i was invited to talk about ngo's in a panel on haiti's history. but it was a pleasant surprise because, and there's a lot of other speakers have already touched on you really can't understand haiti's history or haiti's present without looking at in geode. and just by talking about governmental and political developments you're really going to miss a big part of the picture. obviously, the scenes were seen

on cnn, the ngo's are playing a huge role in their response to the earthquake. but that's also been happening for years. especially out in the countryside around port-au-prince, you can driver and the only cars you can see are with in geode, people are healing the sick and feeding the poor. our ngo's. it's a good thing that people are being fed. it's a good thing people are being sheltered and treated, but it would be a much better thing if all that work was done or at least organized and led by an entity had the legitimacy to forge and implement a national plan, and that would be the government of haiti. some of the arguments against empowering the government of haiti to provide basic services have focused on the critique of and especially the current critique of its inability to deliver. and i'm sure ambassador joseph

hazzard way too many of those. and, of course, you need to critique it existing situation. but in order to do that you have to ask how we got here. it's obvious that one of the reasons why haiti's government got to the point where it can provide basic services without the support of ngo's is that ngo's have always been paid to do those, always gotten the financial power they need to do those things. and the haitian government has always been denied financial power. that do not is a bunch of will waste their he goes back to what dr. baptiste said about the french debt. it goes back to the way that some of the loans were given to haitian dictators and than democratic governments were forced to pay them back by cutting public services. so all along the way there have been lots of ways that the haitian government has been prevented from providing these basic services as a result of policies set in washington, new york and other big cities, not in haiti.

one of the good things is, actually one of the closest connections of that was between 2000-2004 where it was articulated where our government said we're not getting any money to the haitian government because we don't like the economic policies. instead we're giving them to the ngo's to carry out these programs. fortunately, we worked on and this event is one sign of that and have been others at the donors conference last april organized by the inter-american development bank, every speaker got up and said yes, we need to buy the haitian government to provide basic services. but there is duty, a long way to go from the recognition to meet the challenge and to reach, as dr. baptiste said, and eight free haiti. but there is of course the current dilemma we have with respond to the earthquake

crisis. there are people dying that are getting food, our gene schupak of that are getting health care and you can't spend it on time developing the haitian government infrastructure before you start feeding those people. but i don't think that those are mutually exclusive. i think we can do both. at the same time that you have, the red cross is distributing food, then yes, the red cross does but you have a haitian on within to make sure they not to do it next time, next time that is the. i think we need, opportunities for training, haitian capacity to do these things need to be systematically integrated into the earthquake response both short and long-term. the reality is all of this is urgent that it is not a systematic integration it will not happen because people are too busy just to think of those things. i think it's also vital that everybody who is engaged in earth quake relief effort, every

government on every ngo has an exit strategy. they have a plan how they are no longer going to be necessary. this really hit me that i was asked me on an advisory board for the hope for haiti fundraiser, which was george clooney organized a telethon. they had a lot of money and they asked a few of us to help them give advice on how to spend it. and ngo gave us submissions as to why they were qualified. they had a little bit of dilemma because they had shown they were qualified to do things like food. sometimes they said women working in food believe in haiti for 40 years. that showed a certain capacity to but also showed a certain problem that anybody who's doing food relief, was doing 40 years ago and maybe doing it now and they should think about how they could do it carefully so they're not doing it for years from now. i think a third thing about the responding, about developing the capacity is the question of

money. and again, i'm a u.s. taxpayer. i'm very glad that members of congress are worried that our money might be ill spent. i see enough corruption in haiti to know how corrosive that is and what a plague of haitian society. so we certainly need accountability. we certainly need to watch our money, but we are at a hearing and what the things the haitian government stated was that they had only gotten involved, the billions of relief that at least in promise, they have gotten $10 million. and just it's important to make sure the money is spent well. if you can't find the ability of the haitian government to basically provide more than 1 dollar per person, then you're not looking very hard. and i think i should be an alarm bill, the fact that there has been more money going to the haitian government. i don't think there should be a

blank check but i think you can surely find more than, more things the haitian government can do well for more than 1 dollar per citizen. i'd like to make three points about accountability. first of all, that's just it's not surprising a government that's been started for depending on how you count 30 or 350 years, can provide basic services like disturbing food. it's also not surprising that a government that's been start doesn't have basic accountability methods. and i think there's a solution to that, and that is to build the. the ability to create some of these accountability mechanisms. my second point is accountability is a two-way street. a three-way street. haitian government needs to be accountable but also the ngo, ngo's and foreign governments need to be accountable. and for anybody who has tried to trade some of the money that's been going to katie, even in the

last three months when the last 10 years, it's a very difficult proposition. there needs to be ways for people to do that. but the third way, accountability, is the accountability for past injustice. again, as dr. baptiste mentioned as reverend jackson mentioned, haiti is owed a debt and it can be quantified as, that france illegally extracted from a which back in 2004 was guide lead at $21 billion. that would surely go a long way to building haiti back better if that kind of debt was restored to haiti. my third point on accountability is that it should be political as well as as well as financial accountability. and that means it election should be held as the constitution, when the constitution say they have and when it haitian, should be supported to do it, and also we should use the international aid we have as a leverage to encourage the government to

comply with those constitutional limits. there's lots of reasons that had the election that. there's always a good reason not to have an election. one place to look for guidance on that is our own election in 1864. we had four people killed in a civil war that were killed by haiti's ugly. we didn't have cars that we didn't have helicopter. we didn't have telephones. we still manage to have an election despite being in a of a horrible civil war, and that election actually lead, with a long way toward resolving the province of the civil war and helping the citizens of our country. i'd like to close with one more reason why it's a good idea to have a little bit more less work done by ngo's and more work at least coordinating, if not done by the haitian government. and that's in addition to all of the big picture reasons that representative clarke and many others have mentioned intended building a government and serve our own democratic principles, is a very practical one that did

that works better. as part of our hearing yesterday we presented a report that talks about the gulf between the very generous aid has been promised and the eight, the lack of aid that's arrived in some places. and dr. shah mentioned it is a big challenge. but when investigators talk to people they were very quick to mention that they've got these problems, but they are just as quick as a but we also have solutions. and we know how aid can be distributed better. the problem is nobody asks us. and that's yet another reason to haitian eyes everything going on in haiti, especially the earthquake response and development. thank you. [applause] >> thank our panelists. as everyone knows we are way way over time. and mr. concannon, i didn't get a chance ask you because you were speaking, but as we're able to hold question at the end of

the nextel, will you still be here? and have everybody reconvene. so this point give them another round of applause. would like to follow up with the nextel. i'll ask the next them if they could shorten their presentations to five minutes. i know they had seven. while we are setting up, i just want to acknowledge that the congressman did come by, but he was not able to stay to bring remarks. and came by, at least i saw him here while we're in the middle of the panel. so he had to leave but he wanted to say hello to everyone, and i wanted to make sure that you knew that he was here and of his long commitment to haiti as well. and while we are assembling, our

panelists this afternoon, this is a panel pathway forward, assessment and policy consideration to rebuilding haiti. and we've heard a little of that from the remarks from the members of congress, and also from the prior panelists. but this is where we get into, where we go to this new haiti that we envision for the future. you've already met his excellency, raymond joseph, our ambassador. from haiti to the united states, a jealous anthropologist, linguist and pastor. also with him on the panel is mr. paul weisenfield who is serving as a coordinator for the u.s. agency for international development, haiti task force team, task team, reporting directly to the usaid administrator. so he is responsible for coordinating the recovery efforts in washington.

we have nicole lee who is the president of trans-africa forum, she has worked as a human rights attorney and africa, latin america and has gained a keen understanding of global human and economic rights and conditions as well as a passion for human rights and activism. mr. donna barry is currently the advocacy policy director of partners in health where she began working in 2001. she is guiding partners in health advocacy and policy efforts related to health, hunger and socioeconomic development in haiti. richard plunz is a leading figure in all aspects of urban design and is considered one of the worlds leading authorities in urban housing, housing city which he developed an climate has now become an integral part of our architectural curriculum

everywhere. mr. richard gonzalez join the urban design lab in 2008. he is an architect and urban designer. as a native community he brings an array of express on issues affecting urban development. and i think -- have i missed someone? yes. mr. mario joseph. no? okay, who has managed and has comanage and now manage the bureau of advocates international. and i kind of lost my page so i probably read -- he has practiced human rights and criminal law since 1993 and in your times has called him haiti's most respected human rights lawyer your key spearhead the prosecution of the massacre trial in 2000. so those are our panelists and

perhaps we will have -- mr. le marquis. bruno le marquis. is the chief of central strategy of the bureau for crisis prevention and recovery at undp. has extended experience working on the public issues in the horn of africa, arab states, asia and the caribbean. do i have everyone? okay. this is a very big panel. very late in the day. so i'm going to ask if we can try to keep it to five minutes. and we will speak in order in which we are see. starting with ambassador joseph. spent well, i will try to be very, very short. because i already spoke a low that. and say what i had to say. first of all, we are fast moving

from the relief as you heard to recovery. and as i mentioned before, the government through the prime ministership presented a plan which is really not real plan a vision for haiti. and what i can say about the vision, that vision, is decentralization is at the heart of it. and to give you some examples, and that plan then look for an international airport. they look for another airport international in the center part port-au-prince, which is their already. and another international airport for southwest southern haiti. there may be a fourth one, but that's the plan. the plan also puts emphasis on

agriculture because haiti was at once one of the most fertile place that produce food for good part of the caribbean and elsewhere. and early on, colonial times, haiti produced half of the sugar, of the cocoa, the coffee that all europe consumed. so we have it. within haiti's, to develop our agriculture. together with a big program of deforestation. so when i said earlier the focus for haiti is not going to be part of port-au-prince, which some of us have mentioned before. it's true.

that's our vision for haiti. decentralization will also involve the schools, the hospitals, and sports, so that not everything is constituted in port-au-prince. and imagine what happened. one-fifth of the country was hit by this earthquake. and any economic damages it was a percent, the minister of finance was here just about 10 days ago with president preval visiting washington. in his presentation, congress, for the department and president preval also mentioned, president obama. we collected only 20 percent of

the revenues that were projected for the month of january. compare that. one-fifth of the country is hit, and only 20% is collected. that mean to have a shortfall of 80%. and that's why he was asking for budgets. and i'm glad that i've heard quite a few of the people who intervened today, mentioned support for the haitian government. you know, we still have this idea about haiti being the nontransparent country it was in past. yet we've been like that the international community would not have forgiven the $1.2 billion last june your and now for giving the rest of some of it. benchmarks.

i don't say that everything is correct in haiti. we have done everything right, but meeting the benchmarks on transparency, anticorruption and all that. and the last thing i want to say about the government, looking forward, i know some people think that our, you know, is a sweet thing. power can be very heavy too. and while president preval, one thing he push for all the time, ask for help, is to have the elections before his term ends in february 2011. he says he would not like to see haiti going back into an interim period where we would not have a government that is legitimate.

so we are asking international, especially the all u.s., and united nations to help us. with preparations for elections in time so that we can continue this government that has been elected democratically. we want democratic elections, and the president of haiti forcefully demands it. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon to everyone and i would like to start saying thanks particularly to the congressional black caucus for hosting this event that i am with u.s. aid. and the deep and long-standing interest of the congressional black caucus is something that makes our job easier. it's very welcome when we have that kind of partnership in dealing with challenges like the challenge of haitian reconstruction.

as administrator schaus said when he spoke, the focus of usaid was nested on life-saving events and even now we're still very focus on the race against time to get people in shelters before it rained. while we're working on that it is clear from conferences like this that the attention of the international community has turned decidedly to more detailed reconstruction planning. there was a technical meeting in santa domingo last week. a group of international multilateral institutions and donors work together with united nations, the world bank on the post-disaster needs assessment to try to put some flesh to the bone on what the cost work, what the impact of the disaster was in concrete terms. the oas had a meeting and we're moving towards donors conference in new york. so we're focused on the u.s. government side on participating and trying to get our voices heard as well as others.

and let those who influence us and inform us that we know we're doing is reflective of desires of the haitian people and the haitian government, and the diaspora. the sectors that people are going to work on in haitian reconstruction from our perspective are quite clear. i think it all the forum people are aware of what the needs are, the needs for shelter, the 1.2 million, 1.5 many displaced people there's going to be an urgent need going forward. do with jobs for those people, dealing with rebuilding the infrastructure. haiti is that concerned with jude security and has been exacerbated by the earthquake. so food security, rebuilding the agriculture sector would be paramount. we've heard a lot about striking the haitian government so that's another area we anticipate that we would work and. and the last critical area i will mention is raised up to a central services, health and education. the country can't move forward unless those are established. so the sectors are clear.

what we do in the international committee does precisely within those broad sectors is really going to depend on the deeper consultations going forward with the government of haiti. with the haitian people and the diaspora. but there a couple of principles from our perspective that usaid are going to be paramount to us as we move forward. first i think as we heard from ambassador joseph and from others, i think it's a recognition that haiti was on a good path in the last few years. there were a lot of positive things happening in haiti in terms of political stability, in terms of economic growth and stability. our job as we see to help me get back on that path, to rebuild, to strengthen, build on its success is that they've had in recent years. second principle for us is in everything we do, work towards strengthening the government of haiti. we are firm believers that sustainability efforts are going to depend on the government. ngo's, civil society, we believe are important worldwide. they are import and and deny state in any country. they play an important role in

society, but haiti moving for depends on government institutions that are capable of carrying out public function. that's important to us. tapping into the haitian diaspora is another important principle from our perspective. i think 80 is, and i've worked in my foreign service career, 19 years worked a lot of different countries and haiti is not unique in this respect, one of the few countries which have such a large vibrant skillful energetic diaspora community resident in the united states. so it's important to us to tap into the energy of that community and expertise. transparency and accountability are obvious important in easy we do in your document a large amount of resources. we need to move forward with those principles in mind so that we can generate confidence and the outcomes of what we're doing, showing country result and we can demonstrate the money is spent for the intended purpose. without that we won't have the confidence of congress and we won't get resource. so that's important to us.

environmental sustainability. ambassador joseph spoke in the first doubt about that. we want to make sure that is integrated into everything we do. the last one, there are others we can talk about, disability, about the role of women. there are lots of other principles that are going to be important to lasting i will mention force is a little bit of a fuzzy one. i think that's transformation. i think we've heard from other speakers in the earlier panel that this is an opportunity to build back better. build haiti back better. i can have goals that are aspirational yet realistic, how can we use this as an opportunity to transform haiti, help haiti leapfrog into the 21st century and overcome some of these challenges that it has. so thank you very much for this opportunity. [applause] >> thank you. i may have to step out and go over to others at cbc. so we're honoring chairman wrangell also and i have about

maybe a half an hour to get to that. i may step out and tried to get back. thank you. >> thank you. ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank also the congressional black caucus or this very good opportunity. i want to very quickly cover words on the humanitarian institution, the role of the u.n., the step into next week, the 31st of march conference and a few words on some of a few things you indeed he is doing. in the current situation. they institution as you're all aware, we are not yet out of the woods. there are still very, very needs, a lot has been done. allow challenges at the beginning and terms of logistics, a lot has been a chief, an incredible outpouring of support. to the affected population. now currently a lot of emphasis on contingency planning for what

could be the next humanitarian catastrophe. which is the rain, the rain has already started. and the hurricane season. so as a 15 march there was still over 433 sites in port-au-prince, about 680,000 people working, living in small cans scattered throughout the city. so shelter is truly the first top priority. and also to see how to be colder in between the immediate temporary shelter and the need to really speed up to traditional housing, how to support people to go back as soon as possible to most sustainable solution which means going back for many of them, going back to where they came from. so still a lot of support need on the humanitarian side of and the current revised of the u.n. is only 15%. the first was over from the.

this was largely underfunded. but need to transition as soon as possible to reconstruction. the role of the u.n., haiti is very dear to the organization, and the u.n. heavily involved for many, many years. and in france, and in doing so we work very, very closely with the haitian authority, the haitian people, the different parts of the haitian society. and international partners, and, of course, the u.n. special envoy former president bill clinton. the u.n. is involved heavily on the security role through the u.n. mission. that in several u.n. missions over the past 15 years. so right now there is critical

in supporting the haitian national police in maintaining security. the u.n. is very involved in the human response. they have deployed to try to coordinate all the actors involved in humanitarian response. the u.n. is very involved in doing tv and pushing the agenda quickly for early recovery that will start embedding within the humanitarian operation recovery and double up on actors. so that someday one you start already working on recovery reconstruction issues. and the u.n. is, of course, was involved before and is still involved in a lot of development work support to national capacity building and so on. a few messages from the u.n. it's absolutely essential to support national leadership and national ownership. in those big crisis it is easy to forget that somebody is in charge.

in the current institution of haiti we have thousands and thousands and thousands of actors, many are new actors. and because of the magnitude and size of the response and the speed of the response, i just came from there. so many haitian were sitting on the fence. didn't know, or didn't want to really engage because of the magnitude of the response. so it's very important to recognize they are in, they might be we, they might be in bad shape after the 12th of january. they are in charge. we need to respect their leadership and ownership. so it is very important that we need to be absolutely forceful with development. we have to work with, civil society. we have to support the haitian private sector. they are not only sitting on the fence, they feel very much left outside of the big

responsibility. they need to be brought into, we need to work with them. we need to support them so that the trickle-dtrickle down effect will be jobs created. so it's very important. court nation is a major challenge. so all active need to really under that let haitian leadership. accountability, these are very important joint accountability. the international community vis-à-vis the people of haiti. and there are lots of lessons learned from other major disasters. gender equality is very key, key element. to make sure women of haiti are playing a key role in building the country's future. a few words on the steps leading to the 31st of march. the ambassador said has presented its vision.

last week in santo domingo there was the first presentation of the vision. a key element of it is the need for the concentration. decentralization. this is building also on and pose a needs assessment which is going to be in coming the rate days. many international and national partners, and the leadership to assess the damages. so the course of the damages of 7.8 billions that these are the physical damages and losses. this is more than 2009 gdp. and 35 years of war this methodology has been utilized is the first time with such a high ratio when compared, compared to the gdp. higher than gdp. out of the 7.8, 5.5 billion losses in the private sector. the rest is a public safety.

so the number are huge. total need for construction that are going to present art in other .5 billion, and the ask in new york next week will be in the magnitude of 4 billion. so next week before next week there are six dialogue which this is very important to get dialogue for many parts of society, but this is just the beginning of the dialogue. the dialogue will not be over on 31st of march. it is important to remember. just a few words, some of the things, dashboard, cash forward, cash forward. this is where important it is not a long-term solution but to get cash into the economic, to give pride to the people, they're working, they are building. cash for is very important. local governments is going to be top of the agenda issue. legal empowered. 30 seconds.

this might be the moment, and disaster risk reduction. this is a time the haiti political leaders for years put the emphasis on response to disaster. so they have built some solid in term of response to disaster. now is time to move to mainstream disaster. to do is prepare. haiti is not prepared. this is time to maintain disaster and education, and economic investment, and public policies and so on and so forth. thank you. >> thank you, mr. lama crazies for joining us. i think the way to spam and structure it's been really interesting because what we have here is haitian government

society here of course. haitian government, usaid and the u.s. government response. of course, international perspective. the second half ago really looks at come has how does this really work. and what people on the ground are really saying. so we're join with nicole lee who would kind of frame the civil society response and possible policy. nicole has been working as executive director for trans-africa for years and has been on the ground, but what i think what she did was they do is the opportunity that people on the ground in haiti have shared with your many travels there and you're going to date in fact, tomorrow night. first thing in the morning. to kind of retouch base after hearing all these panels of what has actually happened, what people on the ground are really saying. so, nicole. >> take you so much. did we want to show the short

video at this point? we just have a very short video that actually is presented by donna barry and we certainly transafrica production as well. [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> with a limited time i really want to try to use my time wisely this time and cover as much right as possible. very quickly though, i'm very,

very pleased that the cbc has continued on the tradition of really holding up haiti, even in the midst, when no one was talking about haiti. the congressional black caucus was keeping haiti on the front burner. and it was through the congressional black caucus leadership, the transafrica was actually founded. it was found in 1977 at a meeting the congressional black caucus held. african-americans have a state in u.s. foreign policy just like we have a state in domestic policy. and where our loyalties lie, of course, is with the people. they lie with civil society. and so often we've heard in haiti like has been said on the previous panel and on this panel, it is important we support the government. so my remarks should in no way suggests that we don't fully stand behind supporting the government. that is what haitian society has been calling for. for 20 years, brightly.

now, certainly i'm very pleased and excited to hear that there are new ideas inches and foreign policy, that will directly affect his relief operation. and also will affect we construction. but changes can't be made overnight. and we saw in this process, we saw in our release process and it's safe to say it's not just transafrica, but many organizations, we have seen a tense in his relief process to do things differently. and sometimes they have worked and sometimes those efforts have been quite challenged. from the very beginning, i was hearing on the news that we're all going to the international community was going to save haiti. but one thing i found out very quickly when i ride is that haitians actually were saving themselves. prior to the arrival of one grain of rice or one drop of

water, haitians were saving each other. and it's unprecedented, and i think so much about our society, our communities here in the united states. as i went from 10 community to 10 community, and i met with several, i heard basically the same story when the earthquake happen we all stopped. and we were in shock. and then we realized we had to organize. and people organize themselves. there was no usaid. there was very little haitian government presents. there was no one. there was no international community. there was the u.n., itself have been so affected by the earthquake so communities organize themselves and to assess their own situations. and i know would talk about relief, so often we use words like assessment and making sure that the right it gets to the right people, but yet the haitian society assess their own needs. i met one group in later gone.

it was a group of university students who had been elected by their community as the representative. they had one laptop, and in two weeks that gone around and signed up names of every man, woman and child in the camp wants or needs were, where they came from, what happened to the house, we planning on going back to where they were originally from? and they said these are assessors. we have done assessors because that's necessary. so i think it's important for us to keep that in mind. haitians have been saving themselves. so often do i think the challenges that we heard, and i know i have such little time, so i want to point out to challenges that i've consistently heard from the ground. one of the reasons why came to transafrica and while of transafrica is because we are able to go in places that many people either cannot or will not go. i have met with nonprofit organizations and for-profit organizations that are working around the planet when i tell them certain areas that i got into like in colombia or sedan, they can't believe that i was there.

because many tend to go to places where other people will not go. and that is one of the challenges i have heard, that so often the relief organization, the ngo's that brines out of we talked about the problem of ngo's, so often we don't have the intelligence we think we have a. because we're not talking to the people that really are the most effective. i think the issue of inclusion is with civil society in haiti that i'm talking to is calling for. they want to enter when we're talking about water distribution, we're talking food distribution, and document reconstruction that haitians as a society but just like u.s. civil society are in those conversations. it's easier for someone like me to get involved in those conversations than a civil society leader in haiti has been involved for 20, 30 years. and although we have been very pleased that our government and the haitian government has really cooperated in ensuring that many of those people are able to get into these

reconstruction conversations, frankly, you shouldn't have to no transafrica to be there. so i think it's important that we ensure that there is a conclusion at that again leads to this issue of assessment. who assesses what need is. what i saw on that video to me is not proper shelter. but many who see that say, well, haiti was bad before. there were problems in haiti before. so we have gotten them back up to the standards. as we've heard we need to build back better and that is both in the relief and reconstruction process. i think that while we talk, while we ensure that the governments are involved and are participating, we also need to ensure that civil society is at the table. they will be civil society that would be able to really also express the needs on the ground. and i think the cooperation that civil society have suggested between the government, between the haitian government and haitian civil society is something we really need to

consider. and shouldn't be just optional. we should be a part of the reconstruction effort, a part of the plan to ensure that marriage is protected and not necessarily the marriage between many government entities and the ngo community. and with that i'm going to give the my one minute that is left. >> well, before donna goes in, we do want to emphasize though that we recognize that this has been a huge challenge, that magnitude seven-point out not for any country but specifically for haiti. so as we look to where we need to go, i think that one of the areas that people have not read touched upon helps. and really the response and the needs and the challenges and the u.s. international policies and things that need to be considered as we move forward. so i will, of course, a lie you to take that one minute in

moving for. >> thank you government. i want to add my thanks to the congressional black caucus and especially to the staff who did a great job putting this together. and thank you for posting it today instead of the week of the snow storm because i much prefer the flowers to the snowdrifts. i just want to talk, i would use my minute for the film because i want to stress that it was not involved in that. somewhat but it was with institute for justice and democracy in haiti. brian contents group and mario mario's. and the group your and i think i'll do knew new me advocacy project that enables this together themselves. it's something know that we will have to use or advocacy purposes and really to show the situation of how the aid is not reaching at least some pockets of the population of port-au-prince. and if there's one resounding thing that our clinical director in haiti would want me to emphasize over and over, it

really isn't shelter and sanitation and the fact that these two needs are not being met yet, by far. we know the difficulties of getting the a there. we know the amount of aid that has gotten there but it is completely insufficient to match the needs to and we need to do a better job. i think bryant is a good job i don't need to talk about it at all. let me then move quickly on to some of the health problems that we're seeing now, but also what we need to look at any future. partners in health typically works outside of port-au-prince in the central plateau here can we now have for standing clinics in port-au-prince that we haven't set up up with additional haitians staff. over 4000 haitian, now 5000 haitians staff members that we help support either directly or through the ministry of health. the major problems that we are seeing in the clinics right now in port-au-prince are disease,

fears of unknown organs which are likely to be smaller and just some general respiratory illness. and obviously the diarrheal disease and malaria in any of these other major infectious diseases are all only going to worsen in the raining season. so we really, it's all connected to the amount of care that we can provide and the prevention side that's not getting there right now. we also have been helping staff at general hospital in port-au-prince, the general hospital some people are calling it huey. still sing a lot of acute injuries and problems there. but that leads into i think the long-term problem that i know usaid and others have been helping with as have many of the other does, but looking into rehabilitation medicine and not just for all the anti-cuba also

for everyone who suffers from there into the. so there's a part of the plan that the government is putting together will include a major part of how, basically this is i don't want to call a science, but a few. and professional build it didn't really exist in haiti until this time. the people with disabilities not been getting good care of it to this point of time but now that there are so many it's really good in the mirror on the fact that we need to help improve the services to help the folks with disabilities. the other real major issue following the earthquake is mental health. and the fact that there was a real girth of mental health services available also for your quick, but now you have, you know, the entire population has been affected in some way, shape, or form by this. is 10 million people. millions direct almost every, everyone has lost family members. kids are shaken. people are really shaken. and we really need to increase the number of counselors

available, committee health workers that can help with his -- really? >> and let me tell a story. i will get in trouble, but there's a school, a two-story school outside of one of the places where we worked, and actual our administrative offices are which is about an hour outside of port-au-prince. a big truck drove by the school last week, and shook the ground. an ks starting jumping off the second floor. of the school in southern really severe injuries. these are kids who are not in port-au-prince when it happened, but they know. they're completely affected by this. so we really have to do a lot more with the mental health outreach. i may not get to the international policy recommendations as much as i want to, but let me just lastly talk about surgical needs. i know that doctor shaw and administration imagine that surgical services haven't been increase in several hospital and clinics where they did not exist

before. however, there is no staff to maintain these clinics. nor are there supplies to continue the services. they also were not there. the surgical capacity in haiti was incredibly low before this earthquake, and that was shown. welcome we filled by thousands and thousands of volunteers from deny states and canada and other countries. what we need to do is make sure that the surgical capacity is maintained and sustained over, you know, you know, in at dinnertime and helper for medical education, nursing education, et cetera. and lasting, what a great picture haiti presents is now to tie into foreign aid reform and how we can really try to make things better with the effort in houston efforts in the senate. state department and the white house. thank you very much. [applause] the our next it will be mr. mario joseph it will touch upon some of the human rights

challenges that have come about as well as the opportunities. we will have a translator to make sure that everything flows. [speaking i[speaking in native ] >> translator: i'd like to say hello to every, especially ambassador joseph. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: my name is mario joseph. i am a lawyer and i'm the managing lawyer at the international lawyers office in port-au-prince, haiti. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: that the ai represents people are victims of human rights violations including civil rights, political rights, economic and social rights violation in haitian courts and international form, click international court of human rights. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i'd like to thank the congressional black caucus for inviting me to speak to you today about the challenges and opportunities of human rights. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: on january 12, i lived through the earthquake in my office, part of it collapsed. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: from 12th of january until the 12th of march, i was in haiti the whole time and i went all over the country. i went to allow displaced persons camps. i went to saint mark, all around the country. so i got a good idea of what was happening. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: haiti has a tradition of failing to respect human rights. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: and certainly there are good excuses for why the government currently can't respect all human rights. the courthouse was ruined. the ministry of justice was rooted many other ministries, even the tax office was destroyed. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: hobby is a we had a lot of people who died, by some as with over 250,000 people dead, and a lot of people are thinking our government is still under the rubble. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i think the response of the haitian government to the earthquake has been weak. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: i first think of the innovation of many organizations like usaid, crs, the red cross, et cetera. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and i'd like to take this opportunity to thank those groups, because in truth, a lot of aid has come to haiti. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: loss of eight. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: loss of large amounts of money has come to haiti. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: we just heard the usaid administrator, doctor shaw. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: i agreed to some of things he has said that there are some places i didn't agree with tim. [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: he said there was a big problem with the dissipation of a. that is the true. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and he said that they have supported 4 million people, and i'd like to see the numbers detailing that. . . on the screen is that there are people who have not yet received water, not yet received any food. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: certainly from time to time there has been an improvement. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: but it is far from reaching what is needed because there are lots of people

who have not received anything yet. [speaking in native tongue] [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: in large part, that is happening because there is nothing a participation of the affected people in the decisions on a distribution. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: another factor is that there's not been any transparency and eight. >> translator: [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and there's been no mechanism to integrate transparency and accountability into the process. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: the challenges are great, the rini season is coming. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: there are elections coming to be

recognized. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and we need to send children to school. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: we need to use this opportunity before the rain comes to get people into houses. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and we need to organize the elections. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and president preval says it has been not organizing the elections in haiti. name type >> translator: and there's been a lot of talk about getting children into school, but one thing we have to understand this even before the earthquake, 42% of school-age kids were not able to go to school and so those could someone were going to get to go to school, to? [speaking in native tongue]

>> translator: and there's a french scene that with every cloud has a silver lining. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: it's true that we've suffered in a lot of people have type. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: but we need to profit from it to take advantage of opportunities in haiti. >> thank you. [applause] moving swiftly on, we want to just thank everyone for their patience. we are encouraged by the silver lining that as is while the ambassador or president preval has stated that political legitimacy of the haitian government is fundamental for the development of the country a place to hold elections with lee. we will now proceed to the earth institute. and i think one of the area so we have are really parts about is actually the building from the physical building of haiti and what that would take her to some of the challenges that that would really bring and where

we're going to go to. this week the university of miami held a conference with engineers to discuss these challenges and we have a dr. richard gonzales from the earth since two to discuss the conference in miami and possible opportunities in terms of real-world rebuilding in haiti. >> i'll quickly defer to the other richard because i wasn't in miami. we're very happy to be here. i think was very important discussion. i wish we had to take to really have this exchange. but yes, the question is how to do it. and of course, that's a humbling question, at least for those of us who are more in the technical side a test are tools of course are coming from very different place i would say culturally,

development wise and i think putting the silver lining on this question. i mean, here there could be a real possibility of planning innovation for the world and i appreciate very much the ambassador's question of the green opportunity here. and second point would be the question of participation. this rebuilding will not be top-down. what was destroyed was very much bottom-up and certainly a huge piece of it will continue to be bottom-up in terms of what happens next. there's no way to see it in other terms. this will not be a female operation or shouldn't be, let's say. so what we're very much involved with is trying to see what could be a certain level -- a new

level of planning excellence that can really set a precedent everywhere and that's a huge challenge admittedly. so richard, what do you summarize what some of the issues in miami, of course, which was more this question of technical question of how to proceed. >> thank you, richard. just to summarize, the two-day conference ended yesterday that afternoon. premature was participated between 200 individuals, myself included msm architect and as someone who is in the senate of the dominican republic after january 12, it was sort of a shock to the world to sort of look and respond to certain sort of in a really poses closely to not just the people within the subtree, but also the deist bora. people in new york wanted to respond in terms of health. the actual conference was participated with engineers,

architects, technologists, research academic u.s. military of course the most important entity they haitian government officials. having these people together on platforms or to discuss the issues democrats how we as a group sort of identify solutions and strategies to move forward of crucial capacity. some of the topics that were discussed were really focused upon floods, tsunamis, hurricanes and landslides, has been sort of common and up-and-coming in the years to come. but of course, from their, we sort of breach together and came up with some keyboard key items which are engineering issues, long-term data needs, which was existing at the time, but also the most important pieces capacity building. one of the things that are interesting was talked about was when we've looked at the engineering of earthquakes, i just wanted to add with.there

baptiste's timeline that tv was actually one of the first countries that activities in 1992. public and that is the time thursday his tree, but more information and data needs to be able to understand what these results are and what's happening there is that the common notion is not just more earthquake activity happening within haiti, but we've got to look at the whole caribbean plate which would include jamaica, dominican republic, cuba come in puerto rico. the therapy in it together with notorious caribbean which is to the south and the puerto rican trench to the north. and from there, there is more sad trenches and fault lines within that. some are actually mapped out in the 1930's and 1950's but currently there's there is ongoing research going in land, but also within the oceans to

identify other seismic fault lines. from there, i just wanted to sort of embrace on the ambassador joseph idea about sort of resilient communities and what it actually means two decentralized systems and networks on the connection be slipped in that work to work with a supporting system within each other. that is really vital to look at a network within a model if another natural disaster was to come. and current states of port-au-prince, we wer looki at several issues in terms of what that looks like a sort of what are the needs. and of course we have been talking about the rainy season that is up-and-coming. but one of the things it needs to be addressed is really sort of mitigation of cleanup of sort of the city infrastructure, clean enough for a and open spaces so that way a concerted direct the traffic of water flows through the city so that

way floats on water issues can actually be mitigated and controlled. so that is an important issue aside from the emergency out and send an additional latter will come in the months to come. also, we were looking at sort of two layers of the building capacity and in haiti really has sort of two types which is governmental civic type of capabilities that were built with more attention, but then there's the also an proper sort of auto construction or improper settlements within the years to come these two types of buildings have to be let that simultaneously because whether it's formal or informal were looking at different strategies or ideas in terms of how you can facilitate or find the appropriate method that will meet seismic codes and requirements of that it can be resuming structures. finally, it is hard to end with the se withe consensus of another researchers and groups with an attendant where we're

just like you to build houses, but we're here to rebuild communities. and that is something we all went away with, with some sort of local congestion and pride in looking forward to seeing would the next steps be to move forward. thank you. [applause] >> how excited are we about that five-minute mark. gas. i think because of the time constraint replaced everything back 30 minutes. i'm not sure how much we have four questions than answers. what i will do is allow for three questions from the audience. i will actually step back and not necessarily present the questions that we had overall. will allow three questions and then i'll let you know that the panel, is that okay, it's available for a few minutes afterwards to discuss individual agendas. so i will go ahead and take the

first question. you can go ahead and step up from the mike you please introduce yourself, your organization and your comment and question. go ahead. >> good afternoon. thanks for all of what you've said and it was incredible. my name is david wayne and bandwidth to ship for hope inc. and i'm from orlando florida and a friend of haiti. i've been at there probably eight or nine times. but i've been there since the earthquake, but i was there last year and i know what it's like, but i need to ask a question, please. i saw the film and it really touched me in ninth tearing away from what my original thought was, but i just listen to the architects and engineers. which you came up with this going to take a long time, but i would like to know right now looking at their brain and the season is here. if we were to get them in their

shelter housing for schools and homes, i would like to know is that they haitian government along with whomever, where would they be placed? is there a place right now for them? if so, i'd like to know where they can be taken to and how quickly can they be accommodated? >> okay, thank you. we'll just have the questions flow and then have the panel answer. >> good afternoon, everyone, thank you for gathering and sharing your information with us. one thing that i observed to rattle the panels was a discussion about capacity building and the lack of sustainable -- the sustainability of many institutions in haiti. and so my question to especially mr. le marquis and

mr. weisenfield is how do you plan to partner with haitian and they haitian diaspora to build the capacity of its institution to allow the efforts to be sustainable, especially in light of, for example, the justice that your having been studied and had some reforms, but then some of the same issues are reoccurring? so that is my question. thank you. >> okay, thank you good >> good afternoon in reverend samuel and thank you all very much for your information shared. i've been representing our african-american churches in the u.s. we've been active in the country for years. and the question is i'm just returning from the bus trip two weeks ago. and one of the things brought to our attention by our partners in haiti was with the shift that's going on, the population shift of those who are leaving

port-au-prince and seeking services both of north as well as in the outer part. to what extent is the planning for the development of the country incorporating those readjusted shifts of persons who are in new parts of the country now and how is it they incorporated it in terms of where that's coordinating with the kinds of services and resources that will be required to address that? thank you. >> will just go ahead and open it up for the panelists to take questions. i think nothing was directed towards civil society, so maybe i'll just add in as well to kind of put a framework of i think we've already discussed possible opportunities, but i think the challenge also becomes within ngos. they play a real large role.

ngos, they are more ngos in haiti then there is really in any other country. and for that reason, it becomes difficult to coordinate the response. the u.s. government, prior to the earthquake happening, had been coordinating their response with friends of haiti and donor countries on how we can work with haitian government, but i do think that there needs to be a call to actual ngos to play those roles are well. as a kind of where you see that. in long-term, i think as we talk about the building for agriculture -- ending pending for infrastructure, possible opportunities where haitian civil society can play a role in the rebuilding effort. so i'll leave it there and no have you guys just go ahead. >> first of all, i'll take the first question. the question was, where we going to put those people? that was one question that was addressed to president preval

while he was here about two weeks ago. and the u.s. government said that they were ready and willing to set up some pants, but they had problems with sites. and the government has some sites that were already designated and the problem they have with some of them is that their private. so the government of haiti was ready. that's two weeks ago to use eminent domain laws to take some of the sites. they'll pay overtime. so i'm quite sure some of these sites have been designated and they decided to work on them already. my view in which i've expressed all the time is that the people who were forced out of port-au-prince by nature should

be tent -- >> nicole? we can just go down the line. >> first question is a very difficult question. it's a complex disaster. i think our chair talked about the magnitude of the disaster just to give an example, in another sector come the urban feeding program at unaccomplished in haiti today does the largest urban feeding program ever in history. so the number of displaced people are close to 1.5 million makes the challenge enormous. from a development perspective we think the place to put people is where they went to be because anything else kind of porters on social engineering. so the first thing that we're doing and the magnitude i should go back and say demand is a huge international effort, so this is not a u.s. government is the united nations and the united states in the spanish and a large group of donors. there's a large group is working

frantically on just these issues, the side issues. but the first option is for people to go back to their homes. there are group of engineers from u.s. military forces, usaid, from u.n. agencies who are doing ability assessments to determine which buildings remain safe to inhabit. and the figures i've seen for these where they have been done are 40% of the buildings are habitable. so the effort is going to be to move people back there because of their colleagues at the end of the table, we don't want to build houses, went to the immunities. if you can get back to you their houses come into their communities at the place to go. for houses that are not immediately habitable, thereabouts immediately adjacent to them or near them that are being identified as habitable. so that information is ongoing. the remaining number of people for there is no other place will end up having been able to thero other option. so that's what going on right now is a big effort.

should i -- should each of us talk about all three questions? >> you can just go ahead and answer all the questions. >> and the second question regarding planning, we plan to partner with the government dictating build capacity. there are a lot of different ways to do that. the principal weight donors to this is practical assistance and a number of us mentioned the haitian diaspora is a wonderful resource to one of the things would like to find ways to do is tap into their energy and have people from the haitian diaspora: serve as technical advisers and folks working in the ministries hoping to get work done and build the capacity of the work they are. there are other ways, but i know were short a time so that's one concrete thing we can look at doing and we're going to provide funding for that. the last question about planning for services in areas where people have migrated, absolutely. it's an important principle going back to the earlier principle i said do you want to pay people what they want to be and people will say whether a

job somewhere whether or services, health care, education, transport. so are people of migrated them what they're comfortable, that's her services need to be located and from my perspective the planning of the reconstruction effort needs to support the government articulating policy of building alternative economic growth centers and were helped and that by the fact people at move to other areas. >> thank you. i know ambassador joseph has to leave, so i know that he has one of the biggest burdens and tasks of anyone in this room at the time. so i do want to give him a amount of applause. thank them for state on behalf of our members. [applause] please keep him in his government and the people in your prayers as we move forward. so i guess in closing, if the rest of you, anybody who wanted to send any final remarks of the good integer answers to these questions and a final remarks and then we will be done. >> unfortunately, we have to catch a train and were almost losing it, so i think the first question is really -- i mean, of

enormous importance and one that is truly humbling as i said before. tents, yes. the problem of course and global experience with tents as you can still have tents after five years so that of course the immediacy of rain and all of that, but then there's the longer-term and human nature and, you know, the cameras. so they are huge questions now to be addressed. and from a point of view of our expertise, so -- at any rate, thank you for organizing this. >> thank you for being here. nicole? >> sure, just a couple of issues. they think is important is to note in the film you thought you saw a lot of tarps and tarps have been distributed as shelter by many, many governments, including our own. i mean, the fact of the matter

is not just transafrica and others on the panel, but even refugee international and other organizations have just said they're not going to work, they're not working. there is if you will and industry standard. i mean, there are other possibilities. some governments have been given out army pretences attended the concerns raised about tents are important, but certainly we have to consider that the tarps are not going to be something that even in the short, short term are going to be decent for shelter. and so that is a major problem. and the other thing i think it's important now is raised is the issue of accountability with ngos and the reliance, the continued reliance on ngos. i mean, ngos or service providing ngos are going to be accountable to their donors. and so i think it just has to -- two things have to be raised. one, governments are major, major donors to the ngos that are providing services right now. so if there are concerns about the way in which services are

being provided, certainly that is something to usaid and the state department can take up with major ngos that are working in haiti right now. the other thing, and this really hurt me, is that individuals are actually now holding these ngos accountable. i can't tell you the number of calls i receive from people asking specifically about, army $10 really getting to haiti? or is it going to overhead, or is it going into a general fund, how do i know that my dollars are being used appropriately? i think we really need to push to continue those sorts of questions and ensure that ngos are accountable. they certainly are not elected, but there are mechanisms that we could use today to ensure that ngos are doing what they say they are doing on the ground. i mean, one of the major problems that we have frankly and it's not just in haiti, but around the world as many of these service providers that we is actually evaluate their own work. i don't know any other area where one can actually evaluate their own work and say i did a

really good job, start for me. that is not appropriate even if we are in the giving profession. and i think that these charitable organizations should be commended in the details and should be held to the same standard as we would hold a for-profit institution or as they would hold our government. and our government, frankly, can do that. >> thank you. mr. le marquis and then mr. joseph. >> just a bit on that tonight often gets in response to any question, but on the issue of making publicity for something in the government in haiti and what the do you industry right invite now building on best practices for this none the two keep, told everybody accountable to the commitment. it's to put in place quite a sophisticated program will be open to the public, that will be able to recall the needs, to identify g. africa davies and the gps coordinates and pledges that are going to be made next week in new york to try to make

all pledges turning out to reserves, actually serves on the line and anyone with an internet connection, it's not everybody, but anyone with internet connection will be able to track down village by village as the goods are being delivered to my village. and we've already applauded the billion-dollar project, usaid provided all the humanitarian projects have our dependence routing to the database. it's called managed by the u.n. government. i think it's going to be a very good tool to hold people accountable and make sure these joint accountabilities are working. a lot has been tried in haiti. at times the results are very thin. billions of dollars are being invested and some of them very weak. there is an issue -- there are many issues. there is an issue definitely of the supply and demand, with matching. there's an issue of leadership, political leadership. there is an issue of many social

contract. there is an issue conducive legislation that place conducive policies put in place. so at times a lot of investment has come into these institutions was very little results. so we need to learn from that. many years ago and i think you're about 12 years ago doing with others did a study on the justice secretary in haiti that we called it the justices with an s. billion dollars went to just one secretary that only touch the surface in terms of the percentage of the population that goes to that justice is done with very little result to show even now. when the majority of the position is going to an informal under the surface just affect her that it's not been supported, that is not treated connected to the other justice sector. so we have to be careful for supply and demand, me being out there is a new demand to learn

from past mistakes, best practices community is poorer for sure is the key in bringing best practices, expertise, new ways of thinking maybe, so that they'll welcome for the future of haiti. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: had they to speak rudely about the question of displacement. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: there are two types of displacement. first are people of other houses and are living in the streets or in camps in port-au-prince. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and there is other people who read after the earthquake either went to their hometowns outside of port-au-prince or other places. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and it's a

problem that needs to be handled by the government and by the people providing aid. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: for example, the people that are living in downtown in the shonda mize park right in front of the match no palace they be very happy to leave. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: soldiers in some explanations that is there a place for them to go where they can have clean water, where they'll have something to eat and shelter. [speaking in native tongue] >> translator: and the we've seen is that the larger organization, including usaid have been