IICA HIGHLIGHTS 2010-2014 STRATEGY FOR THE CARIBBEAN REGION AT OAS
(Bahamas Islands Info) - By Alejandra Chaves
WASHINGTON, DC - “IICA belongs to the Member States, and our staff will continue to work together to tackle the challenges facing agriculture development in the 21st century. This certainly includes the Caribbean region.” reaffirmed Victor M. Villalobos, Director General of the Inter- American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) as he highlighted key priorities of the Institute’s Caribbean Strategy 2010-2014.
During a breakfast held at the Organization of American States (OAS), and before Ambassadors and officials to the Missions of the OAS from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Villalobos summarized IICA’s approach to support its Member States in their efforts to realize the Millennium Development Goals. He explained, “The strategy takes into consideration the environmental instability and vulnerability of the Caribbean Region due to changes in climate, which has resulted in more frequent and intense hurricanes, drought and flooding, fluctuations in rainfall and declining availability of water; which all of pose a threat to agriculture and rural life in the region,”
According to Villalobos, the plan has four principal objectives: 1) to improve sanitary conditions for plants and animals; 2) to promote and increase agriculture production; 3) to promote and increase agribusiness and agricultural tourism and 4) to address climate change concerns for the countries.
In addition to the principal objectives, the Villalobos Administration also aims to implement practices including how best to work with the regional research body, the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI); how best to implement the Jagdeo Initiative, the framework for agriculture development in the Caribbean and how to most effectively invest IICA’s US $33.3 million dollar operating budget, to name a few.
“All our efforts are geared towards the achievement of competitive and sustainable agriculture,” underscored Villalobos as he explained the recently launched General Directorate’s Competitive Fund for Technical Cooperation Projects. “This initiative is a mechanism which among other results will make it possible to attract external funds to IICA Director General. Victor M. Villalobos, addresses CARICOM countries at the OAS in Washington, DC. finance technical cooperation which IICA provides.” He urged participants of the gathering to consider using the mechanism to further agriculture at their country.
The IICA 2010-2014 Strategy will be implemented in fourteen Caribbean member countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
ARTICLE - VRBANOVIC - SIGNS OF HOPE
VRBANOVIC SEES SIGNS OF HOPE IN HAITI DURING POLITICAL MISSION
(The Record) - By Brent Davis
Poverty and despair have always found a home in Haiti.
The devastating earthquake 18 months ago that killed tens of thousands and displaced countless others only cemented their footing.
But, as Kitchener councillor and Federation of Canadian Municipalities president Berry Vrbanovic is discovering in his first visit to the country, there are signs of hope.
Earlier this week, Vrbanovic visited two relief camps. One holds 52,000 people in “substandard living conditions,” he said. The other, a newer one, has more permanent homes and a semblance of order.
“It was like night and day,” Vrbanovic said in a telephone interview.
For several months, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has been working in Haiti with a number of partners, including the city of Montreal and the federation’s counterparts in Quebec, France and the Netherlands.
Various projects aim to help local governments in Haiti rebuild and better deliver essential services such as water and garbage collection. It’s hoped that the lessons learned on a park revitalization project or the restoration of a soccer field, for example, will continue to serve the Haitian municipalities down the road.
“Our focus is on sharing municipal expertise,” Vrbanovic said.
On this five-day trip, Vrbanovic is accompanying representatives from the various partners as they visit field offices and project locations, sign partnership agreements and participate in political meetings.
The Canadian contribution to the two-and-a-half-year partnership is valued at about $8.9 million, with $6.9 million coming from the Canadian International Development Agency and the rest coming in-kind from municipalities as they send elected officials and staff to assist.
“The legacy behind the projects is that they are sustainable,” Vrbanovic said.
The federation has been participating in “capacity-building” projects around the world for the past 25 years, he said. Some of the work comes in the wake of natural disasters, such as in Haiti and following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
“(The Federation) is not going to solve the problems of Haiti on its own,” Vrbanovic said. “But if we can make a small difference in a few communities, it will be a step forward.”
(The Record) - By Brent Davis
Poverty and despair have always found a home in Haiti.
The devastating earthquake 18 months ago that killed tens of thousands and displaced countless others only cemented their footing.
But, as Kitchener councillor and Federation of Canadian Municipalities president Berry Vrbanovic is discovering in his first visit to the country, there are signs of hope.
Earlier this week, Vrbanovic visited two relief camps. One holds 52,000 people in “substandard living conditions,” he said. The other, a newer one, has more permanent homes and a semblance of order.
“It was like night and day,” Vrbanovic said in a telephone interview.
For several months, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities has been working in Haiti with a number of partners, including the city of Montreal and the federation’s counterparts in Quebec, France and the Netherlands.
Various projects aim to help local governments in Haiti rebuild and better deliver essential services such as water and garbage collection. It’s hoped that the lessons learned on a park revitalization project or the restoration of a soccer field, for example, will continue to serve the Haitian municipalities down the road.
“Our focus is on sharing municipal expertise,” Vrbanovic said.
On this five-day trip, Vrbanovic is accompanying representatives from the various partners as they visit field offices and project locations, sign partnership agreements and participate in political meetings.
The Canadian contribution to the two-and-a-half-year partnership is valued at about $8.9 million, with $6.9 million coming from the Canadian International Development Agency and the rest coming in-kind from municipalities as they send elected officials and staff to assist.
“The legacy behind the projects is that they are sustainable,” Vrbanovic said.
The federation has been participating in “capacity-building” projects around the world for the past 25 years, he said. Some of the work comes in the wake of natural disasters, such as in Haiti and following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
“(The Federation) is not going to solve the problems of Haiti on its own,” Vrbanovic said. “But if we can make a small difference in a few communities, it will be a step forward.”
ARTICLE - INSURANCE SYSTEM BADLY SHAKEN
HAITIAN INSURANCE BADLY SHAKEN
(Star Tribune) - By Kara McGuire
Jaki Gardner, a career insurance regulator, took her expertise from Minnesota to Haiti to help rebuild its insurance system post-earthquake
Jaki Gardner spends her working days in Minnesota making sure consumers here never go through what Haiti experienced. On top of the destruction and loss from the devastating earthquake, many Haitians were left homeless, lacking adequate insurance on their ruined property or stuck with policies from insolvent insurance companies.
Gardner, an assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, used her expertise as a member of a five-person team of volunteer experts sent to investigate the health of Haiti's insurance companies this spring. The team came together through the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a nonprofit made up of economists, accountants and other financial professionals who help in developing countries. In Minnesota, Gardner is in charge of making sure insurance companies licensed in the state have the ability to pay claims.
Q Why was your team sent to Haiti?
A We were there to assess the insurance industry and its financial problems and to find out why they weren't paying claims. We were like a SWAT team. We set up a process where we went into every insurance company -- there's only eight in Haiti -- and we said, 'We want to open up your records and see how much coverage did you provide in this area, and then compare that to how much money you have in reserves.'
Hopefully the reserves are higher than the claims; but that wasn't the case for three companies. The problem was that they had a high concentration of risk, because they were only insuring in Port Au Prince. If all your claims come due on one day, which is the day of that earthquake, that's it. You don't have the cash on hand.
The other five had adequate reinsurance. They were able to mitigate their losses by being insured themselves. The worst of the three that failed had made a conscious decision not to buy reinsurance coverage.
The U.S. regulators wouldn't allow that. That's how you protect your own capital, by reinsuring the losses and spreading that risk out.
In three weeks' time, we went into every insurance company, assessed their financial position, assessed their losses that had accumulated and were unpaid, assessed the status of the insurance company itself, and put together a plan to give to the Ministry of Finance to tell them what they probably should do.
Q So what did you recommend?
A We recommended that they put together a disaster relief fund, and that they use the money to make loans to the insurance companies to pay their claims at a favorable interest rate. For families, they're hopefully going to get some of that money through a building effort. In other words, we'll rebuild your property and then we'll give you a low interest loan for the difference between what is your insurance coverage and what it's going to cost to rebuild. Before we left there, they put $10 million in.
Q Did most Haitians have adequate insurance coverage?
A No. The main risk of a catastrophe in Haiti, they thought, would have been a hurricane, so they had a lot of wind insurance coverage. But an earthquake hit. Homes got toppled and if they did have property coverage it was a total loss, but they didn't have enough coverage. So they can't rebuild. They didn't have replacement coverage.
You've got to teach the people how to buy insurance and what their coverage should be because if you're underinsured, it doesn't do you any good.
Q What are the differences between the insurance market in Haiti and in the U.S.?
A One thing the Haitian industry did not have were standardized reporting requirements. They don't have to file financial statements. Nobody knows if they have money or not. And they're family-run. They're private entities, so there's no stockholders. There's no accountability.
Our companies have to report to us, the regulator, on a quarterly basis what their financial condition is. We're checking to make sure they have security in place to cover those potential losses. Companies have to be licensed.
Here in the United States, if a company goes bust, we have a guaranty association that would pick up the pieces. They don't have that, and the families formed limited liability corporations that protect their personal wealth. So when the company went belly up, they just said, 'I'm gone, I'm out of here.'
Q What appealed to you about the Haiti trip?
A I'm a minority. I want minority people to see minority professionals, and I want them to see that their help can come from within. I was interested in having them see me in a position of assistance in a professional area that's a very unique and specialized field.
I also have this life plan. The first score of my life was educating myself. The second score of my life was career-building. The third score of my life is childrearing and my fourth score I want to be volunteer service. This is a good way for me to launch into that volunteerism in a field that I know.
I am now putting together my own insurance professional team to volunteer two weeks of our time every year to go on a project with the Financial Services Volunteer Corps.
(Star Tribune) - By Kara McGuire
Jaki Gardner, a career insurance regulator, took her expertise from Minnesota to Haiti to help rebuild its insurance system post-earthquake
Jaki Gardner spends her working days in Minnesota making sure consumers here never go through what Haiti experienced. On top of the destruction and loss from the devastating earthquake, many Haitians were left homeless, lacking adequate insurance on their ruined property or stuck with policies from insolvent insurance companies.
Gardner, an assistant commissioner with the Minnesota Department of Commerce, used her expertise as a member of a five-person team of volunteer experts sent to investigate the health of Haiti's insurance companies this spring. The team came together through the Financial Services Volunteer Corps, a nonprofit made up of economists, accountants and other financial professionals who help in developing countries. In Minnesota, Gardner is in charge of making sure insurance companies licensed in the state have the ability to pay claims.
Q Why was your team sent to Haiti?
A We were there to assess the insurance industry and its financial problems and to find out why they weren't paying claims. We were like a SWAT team. We set up a process where we went into every insurance company -- there's only eight in Haiti -- and we said, 'We want to open up your records and see how much coverage did you provide in this area, and then compare that to how much money you have in reserves.'
Hopefully the reserves are higher than the claims; but that wasn't the case for three companies. The problem was that they had a high concentration of risk, because they were only insuring in Port Au Prince. If all your claims come due on one day, which is the day of that earthquake, that's it. You don't have the cash on hand.
The other five had adequate reinsurance. They were able to mitigate their losses by being insured themselves. The worst of the three that failed had made a conscious decision not to buy reinsurance coverage.
The U.S. regulators wouldn't allow that. That's how you protect your own capital, by reinsuring the losses and spreading that risk out.
In three weeks' time, we went into every insurance company, assessed their financial position, assessed their losses that had accumulated and were unpaid, assessed the status of the insurance company itself, and put together a plan to give to the Ministry of Finance to tell them what they probably should do.
Q So what did you recommend?
A We recommended that they put together a disaster relief fund, and that they use the money to make loans to the insurance companies to pay their claims at a favorable interest rate. For families, they're hopefully going to get some of that money through a building effort. In other words, we'll rebuild your property and then we'll give you a low interest loan for the difference between what is your insurance coverage and what it's going to cost to rebuild. Before we left there, they put $10 million in.
Q Did most Haitians have adequate insurance coverage?
A No. The main risk of a catastrophe in Haiti, they thought, would have been a hurricane, so they had a lot of wind insurance coverage. But an earthquake hit. Homes got toppled and if they did have property coverage it was a total loss, but they didn't have enough coverage. So they can't rebuild. They didn't have replacement coverage.
You've got to teach the people how to buy insurance and what their coverage should be because if you're underinsured, it doesn't do you any good.
Q What are the differences between the insurance market in Haiti and in the U.S.?
A One thing the Haitian industry did not have were standardized reporting requirements. They don't have to file financial statements. Nobody knows if they have money or not. And they're family-run. They're private entities, so there's no stockholders. There's no accountability.
Our companies have to report to us, the regulator, on a quarterly basis what their financial condition is. We're checking to make sure they have security in place to cover those potential losses. Companies have to be licensed.
Here in the United States, if a company goes bust, we have a guaranty association that would pick up the pieces. They don't have that, and the families formed limited liability corporations that protect their personal wealth. So when the company went belly up, they just said, 'I'm gone, I'm out of here.'
Q What appealed to you about the Haiti trip?
A I'm a minority. I want minority people to see minority professionals, and I want them to see that their help can come from within. I was interested in having them see me in a position of assistance in a professional area that's a very unique and specialized field.
I also have this life plan. The first score of my life was educating myself. The second score of my life was career-building. The third score of my life is childrearing and my fourth score I want to be volunteer service. This is a good way for me to launch into that volunteerism in a field that I know.
I am now putting together my own insurance professional team to volunteer two weeks of our time every year to go on a project with the Financial Services Volunteer Corps.
ARTICLE - A FUTURE WITHOUT A UN PRESENCE
ENVISAGE THE FUTURE OFTHE COUNTRY WITHOUT THE UN PRESENCE?
(Haiti Libre) -
Edmond Mulet recently returned to his former post of Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, after more than a year in Haiti as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), leaving the place at the head of the Mission to the Chilean diplomat Mariano Fernández Amunátegui (66 years).
An interview with the UN News Center (UNC) allowed us to learn more about Edmond Mulet, [often maligned, rightly or wrongly] and his vision of our country in the event of the departure of the UN.
UNC: What did you do before you joined the United Nations ?
Edmond Mulet : "At my age (66), you can imagine I’ve done many, many things in my lifetime. My first work was when I was ten years old, working for a daily newspaper in Guatemala. I worked as a proof-reader, as a reporter, and then I had a column. Then I studied law and became a lawyer. I was very much involved in the struggle against the military dictatorships in Guatemala, and I was in jail a couple of times. I had to leave Guatemala – my home country – because of threats. I participated in elections, knowing that I would lose, or knowing that the results would not be the real ones. I lost some elections, won some elections. One day, I won an election and the next day there was a coup d’etat and they cancelled the whole thing.
Finally in 1985, I was elected to the Guatemalan congress and I was re-elected in 1990. In 1992, I was the president of the National Assembly in Guatemala. A year later I was appointed ambassador to the United States. I went back to Guatemala after three years, and I was Secretary-General of my political party. I was involved in legal issues, and I had my own legal office. I was appointed ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. I was there for five and a half years. And then I was recruited to come to the UN."
UNC: Can you see a day when there won’t be a UN peacekeeping presence in Haiti ?
Edmond Mulet : "It depends on the capacity of the Haitians themselves and the Haitian institutions to absorb all of what we’re doing to build these institutions. We have been building the Haitian National police capacities. The goal was to reach 14,000-15,000 of them and right now we’re near 10,000 and I must say that the Haitian National Police are probably the best well-regarded institution by the Haitians themselves. Very well structured, very disciplined. The problem they have in Haiti is that they don’t have the resources, not even to pay the Haitian National Police their salaries.
So when will MINUSTAH be leaving depends very much on their own capacity to develop their assumed responsibilities and those capacities. And everything in the end is tied up to the economic situation. If they have national and international investment, job creation, economic activities, and the state is able to collect taxes in order to pay for services for the state, then I think there’s a way out.
Many people ask: “what is a peacekeeping mission doing in Haiti? There’s no internal conflict, there’s no guerrilla movement, there’s no civil war, there’s no conflict with any neighbouring country, there’s no border issue with anybody else, there’s no ethnic conflict, there’s no religious conflict, there’s no conflict for natural resources like with other places in the world like Congo for example. Haiti doesn’t have oil, no diamonds, no coltan, nor anything else, so what is a peacekeeping mission doing in a place like Haiti?”
The Security Council doesn’t have another tool to face a situation of a failed state, so we are there like a backbone of a country, creating the space and the opportunities for other actors on the development side, the economic side, on the social side, for them to build those capacities in the future.
Our proposal right now is to create a contract for Haiti, a compact – civil society, private sector, Haitian government, international community – with very clear goals, responsibilities, and obligations and with a follow-up mechanism; and see if the Haitians are doing what we expect them to do, assuming responsibilities, and us – the international community – delivering on our promises of aid, assistance, money. But we have to tie the whole thing up around the concept of the rule of law. And rule of law is not only police, it’s not only courts, it’s not only corrections. In Haiti it’s also the issue of a civil registry, of a land registry, of functioning courts – creating the conditions and the guarantees for investors to create economic activity and break this vicious circle of assistance and donations and subsidies. I think that we have to help them to be self-sufficient in many ways and these are some of the benchmarks of the mission there.
We will be conducting an assessment in June-July of the security-political situation in Haiti. We should draw down to the levels we had before the earthquake for the military and police components, and then we’ll see how everything goes."
(Haiti Libre) -
Edmond Mulet recently returned to his former post of Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, after more than a year in Haiti as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (Minustah), leaving the place at the head of the Mission to the Chilean diplomat Mariano Fernández Amunátegui (66 years).
An interview with the UN News Center (UNC) allowed us to learn more about Edmond Mulet, [often maligned, rightly or wrongly] and his vision of our country in the event of the departure of the UN.
UNC: What did you do before you joined the United Nations ?
Edmond Mulet : "At my age (66), you can imagine I’ve done many, many things in my lifetime. My first work was when I was ten years old, working for a daily newspaper in Guatemala. I worked as a proof-reader, as a reporter, and then I had a column. Then I studied law and became a lawyer. I was very much involved in the struggle against the military dictatorships in Guatemala, and I was in jail a couple of times. I had to leave Guatemala – my home country – because of threats. I participated in elections, knowing that I would lose, or knowing that the results would not be the real ones. I lost some elections, won some elections. One day, I won an election and the next day there was a coup d’etat and they cancelled the whole thing.
Finally in 1985, I was elected to the Guatemalan congress and I was re-elected in 1990. In 1992, I was the president of the National Assembly in Guatemala. A year later I was appointed ambassador to the United States. I went back to Guatemala after three years, and I was Secretary-General of my political party. I was involved in legal issues, and I had my own legal office. I was appointed ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. I was there for five and a half years. And then I was recruited to come to the UN."
UNC: Can you see a day when there won’t be a UN peacekeeping presence in Haiti ?
Edmond Mulet : "It depends on the capacity of the Haitians themselves and the Haitian institutions to absorb all of what we’re doing to build these institutions. We have been building the Haitian National police capacities. The goal was to reach 14,000-15,000 of them and right now we’re near 10,000 and I must say that the Haitian National Police are probably the best well-regarded institution by the Haitians themselves. Very well structured, very disciplined. The problem they have in Haiti is that they don’t have the resources, not even to pay the Haitian National Police their salaries.
So when will MINUSTAH be leaving depends very much on their own capacity to develop their assumed responsibilities and those capacities. And everything in the end is tied up to the economic situation. If they have national and international investment, job creation, economic activities, and the state is able to collect taxes in order to pay for services for the state, then I think there’s a way out.
Many people ask: “what is a peacekeeping mission doing in Haiti? There’s no internal conflict, there’s no guerrilla movement, there’s no civil war, there’s no conflict with any neighbouring country, there’s no border issue with anybody else, there’s no ethnic conflict, there’s no religious conflict, there’s no conflict for natural resources like with other places in the world like Congo for example. Haiti doesn’t have oil, no diamonds, no coltan, nor anything else, so what is a peacekeeping mission doing in a place like Haiti?”
The Security Council doesn’t have another tool to face a situation of a failed state, so we are there like a backbone of a country, creating the space and the opportunities for other actors on the development side, the economic side, on the social side, for them to build those capacities in the future.
Our proposal right now is to create a contract for Haiti, a compact – civil society, private sector, Haitian government, international community – with very clear goals, responsibilities, and obligations and with a follow-up mechanism; and see if the Haitians are doing what we expect them to do, assuming responsibilities, and us – the international community – delivering on our promises of aid, assistance, money. But we have to tie the whole thing up around the concept of the rule of law. And rule of law is not only police, it’s not only courts, it’s not only corrections. In Haiti it’s also the issue of a civil registry, of a land registry, of functioning courts – creating the conditions and the guarantees for investors to create economic activity and break this vicious circle of assistance and donations and subsidies. I think that we have to help them to be self-sufficient in many ways and these are some of the benchmarks of the mission there.
We will be conducting an assessment in June-July of the security-political situation in Haiti. We should draw down to the levels we had before the earthquake for the military and police components, and then we’ll see how everything goes."
ARTICLE - POSTAL SERVICES ARE IMPROVING
THE POSTAL SERVICES ARE IMPROVING
(Haiti Libre) -
One year on from a new mail sorting centre opening in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the Post Office is showing signs of recovery. Some 87 employees work in the capital's main postal centre, which processes all incoming and outgoing mail. The facility, a 600-square meter tent-like structure, was built with the help of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and its member countries. "We are very happy to have this centre, which helps us provide services to the population. Little by little we are organizing ourselves," says the Post's director general, Edvard Despeignes. "We receive more mail than is sent out. Monthly, we are seeing a 4-per cent increase in volume."
Dedicated employees continue to face tremendous challenges to keep the mail moving, but their working conditions are beginning to improve. Earlier this year, they finally received salaries thanks to a government loan. The Post had not been able to pay some staff for more than six months. Others working in the provinces were owed more than a year's salary... "The loan enabled us to pay arrears and pension contributions, so employees about to retire will be able to claim their pensions," explained Despeignes. "This has served to motivate employees."
The centre will also soon be equipped with air conditioning units to reduce the Caribbean capital's stifling heat for employees as they work. The Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal is financing this project.
Meanwhile, the UPU has been working with Haiti Post on several other projects financed by resources from the Quality of Service Fund (QSF) and member-country donations. South Korea's donation of USD$100,000 from its QSF reserves financed the purchase of two mail vans in 2010. Haiti is also using its own QSF credits to buy other equipment, such as computers, franking machines and stationery. The UPU works closely with the United Nations Development Programme in Haiti on the procurement of all equipment and vehicles.
Loretta Charlemagne, the UPU's regional project coordinator for the Caribbean, will travel to Port-au-Prince on July 11 for a one-week mission. She will follow up on projects undertaken, visit the mail processing centre and hold discussions with UNDP officials to identify additional means that could be used to develop the national postal network. She will also help develop a new QSF project, to be financed using a USD$51,000 contribution by Iran and Rwanda.
Haiti Post employs close to 500 employees.
(Haiti Libre) -
One year on from a new mail sorting centre opening in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, the Post Office is showing signs of recovery. Some 87 employees work in the capital's main postal centre, which processes all incoming and outgoing mail. The facility, a 600-square meter tent-like structure, was built with the help of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and its member countries. "We are very happy to have this centre, which helps us provide services to the population. Little by little we are organizing ourselves," says the Post's director general, Edvard Despeignes. "We receive more mail than is sent out. Monthly, we are seeing a 4-per cent increase in volume."
Dedicated employees continue to face tremendous challenges to keep the mail moving, but their working conditions are beginning to improve. Earlier this year, they finally received salaries thanks to a government loan. The Post had not been able to pay some staff for more than six months. Others working in the provinces were owed more than a year's salary... "The loan enabled us to pay arrears and pension contributions, so employees about to retire will be able to claim their pensions," explained Despeignes. "This has served to motivate employees."
The centre will also soon be equipped with air conditioning units to reduce the Caribbean capital's stifling heat for employees as they work. The Postal Union of the Americas, Spain and Portugal is financing this project.
Meanwhile, the UPU has been working with Haiti Post on several other projects financed by resources from the Quality of Service Fund (QSF) and member-country donations. South Korea's donation of USD$100,000 from its QSF reserves financed the purchase of two mail vans in 2010. Haiti is also using its own QSF credits to buy other equipment, such as computers, franking machines and stationery. The UPU works closely with the United Nations Development Programme in Haiti on the procurement of all equipment and vehicles.
Loretta Charlemagne, the UPU's regional project coordinator for the Caribbean, will travel to Port-au-Prince on July 11 for a one-week mission. She will follow up on projects undertaken, visit the mail processing centre and hold discussions with UNDP officials to identify additional means that could be used to develop the national postal network. She will also help develop a new QSF project, to be financed using a USD$51,000 contribution by Iran and Rwanda.
Haiti Post employs close to 500 employees.
ARTICLE - NEW MAGISTRACY RESEARCH CENTER
NEW RESEARCH CENTER FOR THE MAGISTRACY
(Haiti Libre) -
The Representative of Ban Ki-Moon, Ms. Kyung-Wha Kang, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Kesner Michel Thermesi, the Director General of the School of Magistrates of Haiti (EMA),have inaugurated this week the new research center "Rock Cadet" of the EMA.
Like other key institutions of the country, justice suffers from a lack of credibility and efficiency. Mr. Thermesi thinks that the time has come to better train the actors of the judicial system. "The establishment of this center will allow future judges to be more efficient in the exercise of their duties."
"This is a tool of great value for managers and students of EMA, because it will allow them to have a better understanding of international treaties signed by Haiti", said Ms. Kang.
With its recent reference works, conference rooms and a computer lab, it will allow to give continuous training to upgrade the knowledge of judges who work in the system for several years. This will be an asset to the judicial authorities, since this sector has few suitably qualified executives.
This research center, has been possible thanks to a cooperation between EMA and the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. Canada, the United States, France, the European Union and several UN agencies, have made financial contributions and worked on the development of this library.
Ms. Kang, recognized the multiple efforts made by the Haitian authorities to raise the level of justice and has pledged her full support to Haitian officials.
(Haiti Libre) -
The Representative of Ban Ki-Moon, Ms. Kyung-Wha Kang, United Nations Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mr. Kesner Michel Thermesi, the Director General of the School of Magistrates of Haiti (EMA),have inaugurated this week the new research center "Rock Cadet" of the EMA.
Like other key institutions of the country, justice suffers from a lack of credibility and efficiency. Mr. Thermesi thinks that the time has come to better train the actors of the judicial system. "The establishment of this center will allow future judges to be more efficient in the exercise of their duties."
"This is a tool of great value for managers and students of EMA, because it will allow them to have a better understanding of international treaties signed by Haiti", said Ms. Kang.
With its recent reference works, conference rooms and a computer lab, it will allow to give continuous training to upgrade the knowledge of judges who work in the system for several years. This will be an asset to the judicial authorities, since this sector has few suitably qualified executives.
This research center, has been possible thanks to a cooperation between EMA and the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. Canada, the United States, France, the European Union and several UN agencies, have made financial contributions and worked on the development of this library.
Ms. Kang, recognized the multiple efforts made by the Haitian authorities to raise the level of justice and has pledged her full support to Haitian officials.
Saturday, July 9, 2011
photos - ysmaille's children's program - part 1
Ysmaille is a friend of Coram Deo. He has a welding business and also helps out different missions with their relief efforts. Ysmaille is a Haitian man who loves Haiti and his people. Since the earthquake he has been involved in relief efforts. One of the activities is working in a refuge camp with children.
As you can see, it is difficult for children to play in the cramped quarters that they live in.
This is Ysmaille and his son.
Every Saturday morning he goes to a certain refuge camp and holds a children's program for the children in the camp.
These 2 Haitian women pictured assist him in organizing activities for the children.
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