Communique Issued at 21st Inter-Sessional CARICOM meeting in Dominica

Extensive discussions took place on the situation in Haiti with President Préval, the CARICOM Special Representative on Haiti, Most Honourable P. J. Patterson, as well as with the Presidents of the World Bank, the Secretary-General of the Organisation of American States and the Inter-American Development Bank.

In his interface with his colleagues, His Excellency René Préval President of Haiti made a presentation to the Conference on the historic context of the disaster, which befell his country on 12 January 2010. He underlined how the past helped to explain the present-day handicaps – weak institutional capacity, poverty - that contributed to the magnitude of the disaster.

The President also expressed the view that the international community needed to draw the proper lessons from this humanitarian crisis and called for the establishment by the United Nations of a civilian force that would respond to such crises. The Conference agreed to support this call.

In his vision of a new Haiti, the President placed emphasis on decentralization, the establishment of development poles provided with proper infrastructure and basic public services which could facilitate the creation of jobs as well as the redesigning of the devastated capital. He underscored the necessity for pledges for Haiti’s reconstruction to be informed by the vision of the Government of Haiti.

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