Who Owns Haiti? Book Launch Event

Who Owns Haiti? People, Power, and Sovereignty in Haiti’s International Affairs The Focus On Haiti Initiative will host a book launch event on Thursday, April 20, 2017, to celebrate the publication of Who Owns Haiti? People, Power, and Sovereignty. The event will feature a panel discussion with editors Robert Maguire and Scott Freeman, and contributing…

Who Owns Haiti? Edited Volume Published

We are proud to announce that Who Owns Haiti? People, Power, and Sovereignty, edited by Robert Maguire and Scott Freeman, has been published by the University Press of Florida. The edited volume builds off of the Focus On Haiti Initiative’s 2014 conference, Who ‘Owns’ Haiti? Sovereignty in a Fragile State, including chapters by speakers at the event and from across disciplines. The…

A Very Good Day for Haiti

By Robert Maguire, Focus On Haiti Initiative, 21 November 2016. If ever a country and its people needed a good day, it was Haiti and the Haitian people.  Over the past two months, they have been battered by a monstrous hurricane and, more recently, by widespread flooding and mudslides.  Over the past year, they have…

Building Haiti Back Better, V.2

By Robert Maguire, Focus On Haiti Initiative, 18 October 2016. As the painfully slow process of cataloguing the destruction wrought in early October by Hurricane Matthew and assisting its survivors continues, my in-box fills with emails from various organizations soliciting donations for hurricane relief.  I am struck that the messages are usually from the same…

FATHER JOSEPH Screening

The Focus On Haiti Initiative hosted a screening of the new film FATHER JOSEPH, a documentary on the life and work of Father Joseph Philippe, Founder of Sèvis Finansye Fonkoze, the Peasant Association of Fondwa, and the University of Fondwa. The event featured the film screening and a panel discussion moderated by Amanda Klasing—Women’s Rights Division…

Event: Haiti and its Future: Political Breakdown and Need for Reform

On Tuesday, July 12, 2016, the Focus On Haiti Initiative and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) will cohost a discussion with Jean-Claude Fignole, Haiti Program Director for Oxfam America. Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, Senior Associate at WOLA, will moderate the event. The discussion will focus on the future of Haiti’s politics and the durability of Haiti’s long-term development. The event will be hosted…

Dumping Peanuts in Haiti

Stop calling “aid” what really is about supply management for US agricultural interests. By Scott Freeman, Adam Diamond and Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, originally posted by The Globalist, June 18, 2016. For the first time in a long while, Haiti’s peanut farmers are getting some attention. Kicked off by a blog post and Washington Post article, the decision by…

Let the voices of the Haitian people be heard

By Sir Ronald Sanders, originally posted by Caribbean News Now. “International interests in Haiti, in addition to checking off an ‘elections done’ box, are largely defined by controlling emigration, maintaining stability, and managing poverty. The latter is approached either through the creation of low wage factory jobs or by channelling toward Haiti vast sums of international…

HRA Expo on GW’s Campus

The Haiti Renewal Alliance, in partnership with the George Washington University Center for International Business Education Research (GWU-CIBER), hosted the 7th Annual HRA Business Investment Expo & Conference on GW’s campus June 14-15, 2016. The Focus On Haiti Initiative previously partnered with the HRA in September of 2015, co-hosting the Haiti Presidential Townhall meeting, available online.

Haiti: Towards a New Narrative

The Focus On Haiti Initiative hosted Haiti: Towards a New Narrative with Raju Singh, the Lead Economist & Program Leader for Haiti at the World Bank on May 3, 2016. The event featured a presentation of the World Bank’s most recent systematic country diagnostic published, co-authored by Dr. Singh in September 2015.