OCAPH Haiti Citizen Watch

8. SITWAYEN AP SIV AID LA

Context

Haiti aid watchdog has launched a monthly round table in order to encourage and facilitate communication among the stakeholders working in the Humanitarian sector. The round tables represent the only forum whereby IDP’s Project Manager, the local press and government officials meet to present their accomplishments and respond to the various questions raised by the people living under the tents.

Objective

The Objectives of the “Sitwayen ap siv aid la” is to;

• Empower Haitian citizens through information.
• Encourage Haitian citizens to be engaged in monitoring the management and impact of international assistance to Haiti.
• Offer a platform for constructive dialogue between service providers (non-governmental organizations) and the beneficiaries who are mainly concentrated in IDPs camps in and outside of Port-au-Prince.
• Allow international organizations as service providers, to promote transparency by informing the public about their accomplishments, set backs and plans to better serve their public.
• Provide the voiceless an opportunity to ask direct questions and get direct information through partners.
• Encourage Haitian media to join civil society organizations in an effort to track the impact of the aid while promoting transparency and accountability.
• Encourage, through radio and television talk-show formats to share information on the Humanitarian and Reconstruction efforts.
• Promote transparency and accountability while encouraging noticeable efforts and accomplishments.

Implementation/ strategy

Haiti Aid Watchdog, is working to create a platform that would allow Haitians journalists and direct beneficiaries from the IDP camps to ask questions to representative of international organizations about the impact of their program ten months after the earthquake.

International organizations working in the humanitarian sector will be invited to meet with Haitian journalists and leaders of the IDP camps to talk about accomplishments, challenges and set backs. This platform will help circulate information with the public while creating an opportunity for beneficiaries to express their feelings about the work implemented by international partners. In order to promote transparency, international partners will be asked to share programmatic as well as financial information related to their in-country activities.

Media owner associations, journalist associations, independent journalists and representatives of IDP camps will be invited to participate in this information-sharing effort. If the pilot is successful, this program will be held once a month and be moderated by a rotating panel of respected media personalities. The goal is to have the program broadcast live on radio and television and eventually posted on the web.

In addition, the program will encourage radio and TV partners to organize a monthly “special talk show” that will focus on the effectiveness of the international community’s assistance to Haiti. The idea is to have these shows to promote a constructive national debate on the assistance to Haiti. Several source of information will be shared with the media, including but not exclusive to reports elaborated by international organizations posted on the Internet; letters from IDPs collected by the IOM; articles from international newspapers, the HIRC portal.

Expected output

• Encourage Haitian media to monitor more closely the impact of the aid.
• Give voice to the voiceless. Help ordinary Haitian citizens to be better informed while playing a more active role in monitoring the aid.
• Create a channel of communication between and promote and improve information sharing.
• Promote dialogue between the service providers and the IDPs in order to diffuse the story of the IDPs.
• Create a platform of engaged Civil Society organizations with a key interest to advocate on aid transparency and accountability.
• Empower Haitian citizens and media to launch a major citizen journalist initiative aimed at monitoring the impact of the international assistance to the country

Results to date

Three round tables have been organized between November 2010 and February 2011 with the participation of the following international organizations; Partner in Health, Red Cross, Oxfam, IOM, CMB and Church World Services

Haiti Aid Watchdog organized opens a monthly roundtable in November 2009 with the stakeholders in the humanitarian sector. 30 people represented the internal displace persons living under the tents in Cite Soleil, Jean Marie Vincent, and Corail. The activity gives voice to the voiceless and encourages Haitian citizens to be engage in the monitoring of the Humanitarian aid while expressing their concern regarding the quality and the quantity of the Humanitarian aid.

Partner in Health and church services were the two international organizations that responded to our invitation. Several Haitians journalists also took the opportunity to ask questions to the representatives of international NGO’s. Several Questions were raised by 50 the journalists and the IDPs were participants, was an opportunity for representatives of the international NGO’s to respond to numerous questions raised by the internal displace persons and the journalists.

In January 2011 the Watchdog organized the first national conference on the impact of the humanitarian aid in Haiti and at this round representatives from Oxfam, IOM and the Red Cross participated. About 70 participants took part at the round table a lot of questions mark was raised specifically on citizen participations, quality of the aid in the camps. The activity gave an opportunity to all the stakeholders to exchange information and understand frustration from all side.

The third round table took place in February 2011 with 78 participants took part at the discussions. Handicap international and community blind M responded to our participation and once again several handicapped raised some issues with regards to the  quality and the quantity of aid that vulnerable groups have received to date.

This activity is welcome by the Haitian press, the internal displace citizens still living under the tents because these round tables give the voice to the voiceless and it is also the only channel of communication between the beneficiaries and the service providers.

HAW plans to launch soon a radio talk show and a TV program focusing on the monitoring of the aid with the objectives to improve the inhumane situation that citizens of Haiti are living under the camps. Through advocacy HAW has been able to keep the issue of monitoring the assistance to Haiti on the national radar. A better collaboration between the next government and the international NGOs will be on the agenda of the second round of the presidential debates . HAW goal is to assure that the issues related to a better management of international assistance to Haiti remains a priority of the next government.