« Haïti: an uncertain future »

On 12 January 2010 Haiti was struck by a devastating earthquake that reduced to rubble much its capital Port au Prince. Especially as several of CERAH’s staff had spent several years working in Haiti, CERAH held a conference to provide a platform for the Haitian academic community, and for academics, researchers and the staff of humanitarian and development NGOs working in Haiti, to meet, think and debate.

A further key aim of the conference was to gain a better understanding of the challenges facing reconstruction in Haiti from an analytical perspective and to suggest possible short- and medium-term futures.

The international, two-day conference, attended by over 200 people, was generously supported by the University of Geneva, the Department for International Cooperation of the Canton of Geneva and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

More than twenty eminent Haitians (former Ministers, university staff, NGO leaders, journalists) crossed the Atlantic to come to Geneva and many others came from Canada, France and Switzerland.

The publication "Haïti, Réinventer l’avenir" (Haiti: Recreating the future), published jointly by the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, France and the Haiti State University, seeks to go beyond the deliberations of the conference by collecting the opinions of over 20 Haitian, North American and European researchers and practitioners.