Aid Delivery in Haiti: Development Needs, Capacity Building, and Challenges

Committee: 
Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission
Date: 
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - 12:00 to 12:45
Link to Hearing on Committee website
Wednesday, December 03, 2014
 
12 PM
 
HVC-210 U.S. Capitol Visitor Center
 
Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a hearing on aid delivery and development strategies for long-term capacity building in Haiti.

While economic and social stability have improved since the devastating earthquake in January 2010, Haiti faces a host of challenges to continued improvement, including extreme poverty, economic disparity, and weak governmental institutions. Contentious delays in a long overdue elections process have further eroded international donor support, hampering development efforts. As the world bears witness to the Ebola crisis in West Africa, it is clear that epidemics, including the cholera crisis in Haiti, can cripple weak public health systems in resource-strapped areas with devastating consequences and profound geopolitical and economic implications. This hearing will cover what is possible when public and private sectors form partnerships to deliver assistance, create long-term capacity building, strengthen institutions, and ensure Haiti is equipped to deal with crises and reduce poverty across the board. 

Panelists will discuss the success and challenges of aid delivery by NGOs in partnership with the public sector and USAID; what Haiti needs for long term credentialed capacity building; and obstacles that Haiti’s uncertain political future creates for development. They will also address issues surrounding donor funding, and the need to elevate rights-based funding, or funding that includes community participation, supports the capacity of the state, and emphasizes accountability to rights-holders and beneficiaries.

 
Panel I
• Mr. Thomas C. Adams, Special Coordinator for Haiti, U.S. Department of State
• Ms. Elizabeth Hogan, Acting Assistant Administrator for the Latin America and Caribbean Bureau, U.S. Agency for International Development 

Panel II
• Dr. Paul E. Farmer, Chief Strategist and co-founder, Partners In Health; United Nations Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Community-based Medicine and Lessons from Haiti
• Ms. Loune Viaud, Executive Director, Zanmi Lasante
• Ms. Lisa Davis, Human Rights Advocacy Director, MADRE; Clinical Law Professor, CUNY Law School

 
The hearing will be streaming live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hclive18
Country: 
Haiti
Tags: 
Politics and Security