Washington, DC, 19 May 2023 - Today, , Deputy Special Representative for the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), and Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Haiti, wrapped up a three-day mission to Washington, DC, following meetings with the US Government, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), think tanks and civil society. She came to DC to engage in discussions on Haiti’s humanitarian and development crisis.
Upon arrival on 17 May, the Deputy Special Representative met with a group of Washington-based 缅北禁地officials and think tank experts, where, among other things, she discussed .
That same day, Ms. Richardson went to the IMF to meet with the IMF Mission Chief for Haiti, Patrizia Tumbarello. Immediately afterward, she visited the US Capitol, where she met with staff from the office of Representative Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Florida), who serves as Chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State [Department] and Foreign Operations. She ended her day by meeting at the World Bank with members of the Board of Directors, including Executive Director Erivalso Alfredo Gomes, who covers Haiti.
The following day, 18 May, she went to USAID, where she met with officials including the Deputy Assistant Administrator of the Bureau for Humanitarian Affairs, Marcia Wong. She also met with Representative Yvette Clarke (D-New York), the co-founder of the House Haiti Caucus, before heading to the National Security Council, where she exchanged views with Josh Black, Senior Director for Multilateral Affairs, and other counterparts.
On 19 May, Ms. Richardson went to the US Department of State to meet with a wide range of officials. The group included Deputy Assistant Secretary Brian Grimm of the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, and Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Gail Morgado of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, as well as representatives of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and the Washington Office of the US Mission to the UN.
The Deputy Special Representative’s final engagement was a roundtable discussion with the civil society group InterAction. During that session, she said, “Haitians want much more than humanitarian aid… they want dignity.” She also evoked how “painful [it was] to see the hurdles Haitians need to go through… and the fear they live in.” Referring to the systematic violence she was seeing as a “weapon of war,” she maintained that, in Haiti, as well as globally, “brutality is devastating for society… it’s a dehumanization of human life… a grim reality… a call to action.”
