CARICOM Secretary-General, Dr Carla Barnett, is urging regional and international actors to strengthen coordination of assistance to Haiti.

Addressing the Regular Meeting of the Organisation of American States (OAS) Permanent Council late last week, Dr Barnett called for enhanced coordination of support to Haiti, which he says is necessary to confront the vital needs of the Haitian people and avoid duplication.

She acknowledged the OAS-initiated project, “Towards a Haitian-Led Roadmap for Stability and Peace with Regional and International Support,” and the recent High-Level Inter-American and International Delegation to Haiti in August, which CARICOM attended at the invitation of the OAS Secretary General.

For Dr Barnett, those initiatives have helped to strengthen coordination and build synergies by facilitating contact and exchanges of individual experiences and lessons learned among an array of international actors.

“It also sent the message to the people of Haiti, that despite the challenges and perils of the present situation, they have not been abandoned by the international and regional communities, and that the collective commitment to support Haiti was still alive, despite the long duration of the multifaceted crisis,” the Secretary-General told the OAS.