Second Community Foundation Workshop in Port au Prince, Haiti

Practitioners from Kenya, Mexico and Brazil share their experience.

Conversations about the creation of a community foundation in Haiti have been ongoing over the last year or so as part of a process initiated by Espwa and the Puerto Rico Community Foundation and supported by the GFCF, the Kellogg Foundation and the Inter-American Foundation. An initial workshop to discuss the idea was held in Haiti last year which brought together an initial group of community and business leaders, diaspora and funders. On January 31^st and February 1^st 2012 a second workshop was held in Port au Prince to take the idea further. In attendance were an expanded group of Haitian representatives as well as foundation practitioners and board members from Mexico, Kenya and Brazil. Over the course of the workshop, which was facilitated by Jenny Hodgson of the GFCF, participants identified some of the key obstacles that were inhibiting the realisation of Haitian-led development agenda as well as some of the local assets – such as existing grassroots groups, the commitments of individuals, support from the diaspora etc. – which could be built on in the framing of a new institution. Read more