Welcome to the FOCAL archive
The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is no longer in operation. This website documents FOCAL's activities and accomplishments throughout its existence. Thank you for your interest in the work of FOCAL.
| Haiti: Role of Private Sector, the Willson House Process |
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The private sector is a critical, but often overlooked actor in supporting economic, political and social development in Haiti. Growth of the formal private sector is one of the most important elements in job creation and growing tax revenue to enable effective government services. Beyond this, the private sector is an important source of skilled and technical workers that are in short supply in Haiti. FOCAL was a catalyst for discussions, research and new initiatives between the private sector, government and multilateral actors. Starting in September 2005, FOCAL and the Inter-American Dialogue convened a series of groundbreaking meetings between leaders of the Haitian private sector and international donors at Willson House on Meech Lake near Canada’s capital city, in Atlanta and in Port-au-Prince. These meetings were a unique attempt to harness some of the ideas and energy of the one sector in Haiti with the resources, skills and capacity to reduce poverty from within and to help build capacity for development in Haiti through formalization, modernization, privatization and decentralization in a variety of sectors. The meeting also provided the starting point for a discussion of the private sector's role in supporting education reforms, a particular area of business involvement and investment. This experiment in bringing private sector leaders together with the international development community came to be known as the Willson House Process. Meetings of the Willson House Process:Other related publications:FOCALPoint Spotlight on the Americas Building Big in Haiti FOCALPoint Spotlight on the Americas Public-Private Collaboration in Education: A New Development Model for Haiti The Role of the Private Sector in Improving Educational Outcomes in Haiti FOCALPoint Spotlight on the Americas Haiti: Economic Growth and Violence The Privatization of Foreign Development Assistance Building Foundations for Haiti’s Future FOCALPoint Spotlight on the Americas: Special Edition on Haiti Private Investment: The Cure for Chronic Ailments (p.5) |
