Tomorrow US officials will visit Ti Ayiti, a neighborhood in the vicinity of the slums of Cité Soleil, where IOM is implementing community stabilization projects with funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The projects, which are part of the Haiti Stabilization Initiative (HSI), aim to reduce the power and influence of gangs by revitalizing local governance and the return of the rule of law.
By encouraging communities and state institutions to work together to identify key basic needs, HSI promotes community cohesion and enhances citizen confidence and participation, which leads to a reduction in community tensions.
Projects include the construction or rehabilitation of public infrastructure, such as roads and schools, as well as training in conflict-resolution skills for community leaders. These activities also generate employment opportunities through labour-intensive work.
Cité Soleil is a priority area for the Haitian government, because of its potential for destabilization in the country. A densely populated slum on the coastal side of Port-au-Prince, it is generally regarded as one of the poorest and roughest areas of the capital. Most of its 200,000 residents live in extreme poverty, with high levels of violence, few public services and few economic opportunities. Only 25 percent of families have access to clean drinking water.
The HIS projects are an expansion of IOM's PREPEP (Programme de Revitalisation et de Promotion de l'Entente et de la Paix), which addresses similar community stabilization issues in other volatile areas of Port-au-Prince and five other departments outside the capital.
Both programmes aim to promote peace and stabilization in post-conflict Haiti and foster the necessary environment for economic and social recovery. Since 2004 IOM has implemented more than 1,200 projects through PREPEP and HIS, with funding of more than US$ 25 million.
For more information please contact Frislain Isidor, IOM Port-au-Prince. Tel: +509.244.1247 Ext. 118. Email: fisidor@iom.int