OTTAWA, Canada, CMC—Barbados Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) David Comissiong on Tuesday called on the international community to establish a development plan for Haiti as the French-speaking CARICOM country emerges from years of civil unrest, political instability, and economic problems.
Comissiong, participating in a panel discussion entitled “Haiti Now: Development Priorities and Interventions,” said that the regional integration grouping should also play a role in formulating and implementing the plan.
“The truth is that virtually every international institution is already in Haiti and has some Haiti project. But what is now required is a much greater Haitian partnership in the leadership of those processes,” Comissiong said, adding that there is also a need for “a significant increase in the scale of deployed resources.
“There must also be a new commitment to consciously design these projects in a manner calculated to produce resilience and self-generating growth and development in Haiti.
“I believe that CARICOM must play an important advocacy and watchdog role in ensuring this unfolds. I would recommend that CARICOM equip itself to accomplish this task by further institutionalizing and expanding its Eminent Persons Group (EPG) and transforming it into a permanent or semi-permanent entity that will focus on ensuring that both CARICOM and the international community remain deeply engaged with Haiti and follow through with providing Haiti with the requisite development resources.”
The panel discussion is part of the 54th annual meeting of the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Board of Governors, which officially begins here on Wednesday.
The CDB said that the panel discussion will explore approaches to development in Haiti considering its unique and complex challenges, which combine to make it one of the most fragile states in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
It said the event will provide a platform to examine innovative approaches to sustainable and inclusive development, particularly in light of the recent political crisis and its impact on socio-economic advancement.
Comissiong said the EPG, which is made up of the former Dr. Kenny Anthony, Bruce Golding, and Perry Christie, the former prime ministers of St. Lucia, Jamaica, and The Bahamas, respectively, could be expanded by adding “other prominent personalities,” including Haitians at home and in the diaspora, Africa and “other components of the international community.”
He said a vital feature of the development plan for Haiti should be that ‘it should be centered around a partnership between the institutions of CARICOM and the institutions of the Haitian state and civil society with essential funding being provided by the international community”.
The Barbados diplomat said, “Virtually every single CARICOM institution, associate institution, and functional cooperation institution should have a presence and a program on the ground in Haiti, partnering with Haitian institutions…
He said the CARICOM institutions, including the CDB, are involved in all aspects of socio-economic development. He even sought to outline Cuba’s role in public health development.
“Haiti’s present and future must be with the Caribbean Community, and CARICOM must, as a matter of duty, have Haiti’s back and ensure that justice is done to its member state.”
Earlier, the Commission said that the main reason there is now a presidential transitional council and government in Haiti is the role played by CARICOM.
He said the regional grouping had decided “to mount its very own independent initiative to assist in finding a solution to the crisis in its member state.”
He said CARICOM had established the EPG, .mandating it to engage with the Haitian stakeholders “and to try to help them come to a basic political consensus on a way forward for Haiti.”
He said, speaking from his vantage point as his country’s ambassador to CARICOM, “I think I can confidentially assert that CARICOM’s leadership has evolved to the point where there is a deep commitment to the people of Haiti and a firm resolve to stay the course and to play a very active and hands-on role in helping our Haitian brothers and sisters to come through the current crisis, to stabilize Haiti and to have Haiti assume its rightful place within the nexus of developmental relationships that CARICOM consists of.”
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