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OAS Secretary General and Haiti’s President discuss developments and challenges in the country’s reconstruction process

The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, met with the President of Haiti, René Préval, in Port-au-Prince on Thursday evening to discuss in detail the progress made and the challenges faced in the country’s reconstruction effort within the framework of a program led by the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC).

The meeting was also attended by the Minister of Justice, Paul Denis; the OAS Secretary of Political Affairs, Víctor Rico; and the OAS Representative in Haiti, Ricardo Seitenfus. President Préval and Secretary General Insulza spoke at length about the complexities within the electoral process, the improvement of the Civil Registry, the forming of an electoral census and the creation of a cadastre system to regulate property ownership in the country.

This project represents one of the main OAS commitments in relation to Haiti and seeks to attract foreign investment and to develop the depressed Haitian economy. The program, amounting to 70 million dollars, will be presented for approval to the IHRC, chaired by former US President Bill Clinton and the Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean-Max Bellerive.

At the meeting, which took place in a section of the Presidential Palace that survived the violent January 12 earthquake, both leaders also discussed the status of the Civil Registry Program (PUICA), a project currently being implemented by the OAS in Haiti to improve a digital civil registry system to normalize the situation aggravated by the catastrophe that affected the country earlier in the year, which led to the collapse of public offices and the lost of citizens’ identity cards. The program’s immediate goal is to establish a system to update the electoral census for the upcoming presidential and legislative elections in November.

President Préval expressed his gratitude for the commitment and the effort shown by the hemispheric organization towards helping in the process of reconstruction and normalization of Haiti, which has suffered a setback in its efforts to reduce poverty levels. The OAS Secretary General reiterated the importance of international aid for the economic recovery and the country’s development of its democratic institutions and underlined that reconstruction would be virtually impossible without the support of the international community.

On this, his second trip to Haiti since January’s earthquake, Secretary General Insulza also met with the OAS Mission to Haiti to witness first-hand the current status of the program to identify all Haitian nationals, to prepare identity cards and the methods to distribute them. To achieve these goals and to overcome the enormous difficulties faced in terms of communications and travel within the country, the OAS has deployed mobile units to help with the registration, which is the first stage of this ambitious project.

The Secretary General of the hemispheric organization also visited the housing inspection program of the Pan-American Development Foundation (PADF), an OAS affiliate. As of today, the 105 engineers participating in the project have inspected more than 76,000 homes in Port-au-Prince and found that 51 percent of them meet sufficient living conditions.

At noon, immediately upon his arrival to the Haitian Capital, Secretary General Insulza met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marie-Michele Rey, who explained the current situation in the country and the relief efforts by the international community. Minister Rey highlighted that priorities within the reconstruction process continue to focus on housing, education and health, which is reflected in the concentration of projects in these areas.

Secretary General Insulza and Minister Rey also discussed the joint Electoral Observation Mission of the OAS and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that will accompany the elections on November 28 and which has already commenced work in Haiti.

A photo gallery of the event is available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-305/10