Rough Concept of Proposed Haiti Women's Summit (shared with Haiti women meeting Wed) -

Hello all,

I responded to a request from Carol Pierre Paul Jacob of SOFA today, after our telephone call, to write up the concept for a proposed Haiti Women's Summit so they can discuss it tomorrow. She was very interested and will be meeting with several of the women's organizations/leaders who are attending a KONAP meeting in the capital.

Special thanks to Taina Bien Aime for sharing a super-rapid note that I cribbed from, and for Equality Now's thinking on this subject and possible leadership in organizing the summit (with our Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti and diff members help, of course :) - and working possibly with UNIFEM as a key partner.

Please do not circulate this until we have all had a chance to discuss and tweak what is a very ROUGH concept note.

• Merci, Anne-christine

Draft Concept for a Haitian Women's Summit. Possible date: May 2010

Introduction:

In the aftermath of the January 12th earthquake in Haiti, the Haitian government and civil society actors have worked to help implement emergency relief for the over 1 million newly displaced citizens, many without work, shelter, and recovering from serious losses and injuries. In recent weeks, Haitian government officials and global stakeholders representatives have worked to draft a national Post-Disaster Needs Assessment that will serve as a blueprint for reconstruction. A critical component in the global discussion must be the voice of Haitian women and the leadership they have to offer Haiti.

Women's Needs

It's well known that humanitarian crises, - including natural disasters - may have gender-specific results. In Haiti's crisis, women and girls have greatly suffered, and the women's movement has lost key leaders, staff and members, and their offices have been badly damaged. There is an urgent need to support Haiti's women and girls and their leaders and organizations, and to advocate for the current relief effort to be more responsive to the needs of women and girls who carry additional burdens as caretakers in this post-disaster climate. Already, reports of sexual violence in tent cities have highlighted the lack of security or safe shelters for women and girls, and the dangers they face, as well as services needed to help violence and rape survivors.

Supporting Women's Participation, Leadership, Visions

The successful reconstruction of Haiti cannot occur successfully without the full participation of women who are in the best position to understand the needs of their country and offer ways to contribute systematically and comprehensively to the decision-making processes currently in place or in discussion. Haitian women must integrally participate in all processes related to the reconstruction of Haiti, including in areas of emergency health and aid relief, housing, engineering, business, foreign aid, education, political participation, environmental issues, human and women's rights, legislation and legislative reform, judiciary reform, and human security, including the prevention of violence against women.

Concept: A Women's Summit in Haiti (May 2010)

We are proposing a 3-day Summit on Women and Girls to take place on a long weekend (Fri-Sun) in Haiti in the near future. This would bring together Haitian women and grassroots leaders with diaspora and international women's advocates, and with key mutisector stakeholders in the global humanitarian effort to help Haiti. This would support Haitian women leaders in the fields listed above to be at the center of national and global discussions of Haiti's future.

Summit goals: The object of the Summit is to give Haitian women the opportunity to share their views and experiences related to the situation facing Haitian women and girls now with international colleagues, and to discuss how the new national reconstruction efforts be responsive to needs of women and girls.

A key outcome will be to support creation of a blueprint for concrete action and partnerships (natl, intl) that will allow Haitian women leaders and those in grassroots organizations to actively participate in decision-making processes of the Post-Disaster national plan.
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Participants in the Summit (proposed):
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-15-20 Haitian women leaders (diversely represented with respect to fields listed above, if applicable)
-10-15 Women leaders in Haitian \"diaspora\" and advocates from the Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti group that will help organize the summit
-10-15 Key international stakeholders (NGOs, bilateral agencies)
-5 International women leaders from post-conflict/post-natural disaster areas who could share their experiences, good practices, challenges and successes with Haitian women (eg from Pakistan, Rwanda, Colombia, Liberia, Aceh/Thailand, etc…)
- Funders - key funders of women's programs, and others with a strong interest in Haiti

Topics to be covered:

• Review and discussion of the new national plan and its ability to respond to needs of women, girls




• The need for participation of Haitian women in the high level international forums and decision-making bodies related to Reconstruction




• How women and girls may benefit - or not - from initiatives within different sectors of the reconstruction effort.




• Emergency needs of women and girls for shelter, health care (including mental health/ counseling, rape crisis/physical therapy), food production, security and sexual violence protection/services, employment, access to credit/funding to reorganize actitivies

-working together on Strategic Planning to address issues, needs, actions related to a) emergency services; b) disaster preparedness and c) economic recovery and 4) possible new partnerships with diaspora and outside advocates and institutions, including regional Caribbean
- steps to assure that women's voices, experiences and leadership are made highly visible, especially to global stakeholders, especially the voices and visions of local, grassroots women and community leaders;
- discussion of funding and other steps to help strengthen Haitian women's movement and empower a new generation of Haitian women and girls to become leaders

Background to Summit Idea:

The idea for a Haitian women's meeting was raised by Anne-christine d'Adesky, a journalist and women's rights activist who has family in Haiti, to other members of the new Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti group.* Ms. d'Adesky had met earlier in Haiti with women leaders from groups including SOFA, Kay Fanm, Fanm Deside, and Droits et Democracie. The Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti includes a growing number of Haitian diaspora leaders including Leonie Hermantin and Karen Ashmore of Lambi Fund, with Marie St. Cyr; Edwidge Danticat; Taina Bien-Aime; Berlotte Israel of Dwa Fanm; Alice Backer and Georgie Popplewell of Global Voices, myself, and US advocates such as Janet Feldman, Beverly Bell, and others.

Another US organization, Equality Now, represented by Taina Bien-Aime, had had a similar idea modeled after a post-disaster Afghan summit they organized for and with Afghan women years ago. The two groups are now working together to develop this concept, and hope to engage UNIFEM as a key partner to help fund such a Women's Summit.
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. Initial conversations last and this week with selected women leaders in Haiti reveals great enthusiasm for holding a Women's Summit in Haiti that would bring together women leaders there and from the grassroots/provinces, with international feminist leaders and key stakeholders in the Rebuilding Haiti effort.

Possible organisers/funders/cosponsors:

Equality Now, working with Poto Mitan members, is interested in working with UNIFEM to organize and fund this Summit, and possibly other donors. Organizing would be done by a small organizing committee and based on an agenda put forth by the Haitian women's groups, working in close collaboration with international colleagues.

If the Haitian women's groups declare their collective interest in having the Summit take place, in Haiti, the time frame would be, ideally, before June 1, the official start of the hurricane season. A meeting in April or May would support women having more input and access to decision-making and funding that is quickly arriving to Haiti and will accelerate after April 1, post the upcoming NY Donor's meeting on Haiti March 31.

I have also attached the new announcement of our Poto Mitan: Rebuilding Haiti initiative, which we plan to launch in New York at the Donor's meeting. We are hoping to announce the Summit plan then, if there is consensus from Haiti on this.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on a possible summit.

Merci - and kenbe fem,

Anne-christine