– concerns over two-day Miami event
Analysis
LAST WEEK, as first the Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper, followed by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, were on visits to earthquake-ruined Haiti, there were concerns about a United States of America private sector-initiated ‘investment summit’ in Miami next month, focused on economic reconstruction in that Caribbean Community member state.
Scheduled for March 9-10, the organisers and sponsors claim to be working on ‘reconstruction principles’ identified at last month’s Montreal Conference on Haiti, hosted by Prime Minister Harper.
But CARICOM, which participated in the Montreal Conference and has been mandated by Haiti to function as its special advocate at international fora in relation to the country’s post-earthquake reconstruction, had no invitation or official information about this coming ‘summit’.
And at the time of writing two days ago, the indication given was that it was “most unlikely” that CARICOM would have an official presence at the scheduled ‘investment summit’.
Instead, the Community is immersed in preparations, in collaboration with the Haitian administration of President René Préval for the United Nations Donors Conference on Haiti, currently being organised for late next month in New York.
While the Miami ‘investment summit’ has a focus on garnering private contracts with an eye on security-related development, the UN’s coming conference on Haiti will reflect current concerns over “the scale and nature of the challenges we face, not only on the relief side but also the course for the recovery and development later on,” according to Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes.
In contrast, the two-day ‘investment summit’ being organised for next month, in promoting the event, has pointed to the benefits that could accrue to private corporations from private discussions.
Engaging in customary humanitarian rhetoric, the organisers of the summit, a number of whom are linked to some big names in private security operations, and not all with flattering credentials, state, for instance, on its promotion website (www.investmentsummits.com/haiti) the following comment:
“The summit benefits from a proven event model that includes plenary addresses on key areas with the opportunity for private discussions between attending companies and the various international delegations in attendance…

The Agenda
“The format is aimed at ensuring that attending companies have the opportunity to meet with leading stakeholders and demonstrate the important roles they have to play in the aid reconstruction  and re-development of Haiti, essentially making  for a mutually beneficial multi-lateral relation forum…”
For the co-author of the book on ‘Capitalising on Catastrophe’, Nandini Gunawardena (the other is Mark Schuller), the event seems to allow private corporations, in various disguises, to talk up international humanitarian agencies and convince them how they would be best placed to bring in various services and undertake reconstruction tasks — essentially to make no-bid contracts and deals (as in the past) which promise to wreak further disruption and disempowerment in the lives of Haitians…”
Linking last month’s Montreal Conference on Haiti with the coming Investment Summit in Miami may be quite tactical on the part of the organizers. But are the objectives the same — in the best interest of Haiti’s post-earthquake reconstruction?
Doubts, and even warnings, are already surfacing among those with reservations about sponsors like the security firm, ‘Sabre International, in conjunction with the International Peace Operations Association (IPOA), described as a British “provider of business summits.”
It is to be hoped that should CARICOM governments and private sector representatives be among invited participants and turn up for this ‘investment summit’, they would be quite vigilant in honouring their own policies and mandates — in the best interest of Haiti and the wider Community.
In the meantime, as new human tragedies continue to plague Haitians — the latest being the collapse of a school from a mudslide that killed four children, amid warnings of further dislocation from expected heavy rains,  varying estimates are emerging on the enormous scale of international aid required for reconstruction and re-development of Haiti.