Friday, as part of an Inter-institutional Support Program for Urban Functions (PAIFU) ended the 3-day mission of a Haitian delegation of the Interministerial Committee for Territorial Development (CIAT) came to Guadeloupe to take inspiration from the urban renewal carried out in Pointe-à-Pitre, considered as a reference in the region, to eventually apply what is transposable to Port-au-Prince according to the financial resources, projects and culture of Haiti.

During its stay the Haitian delegation of fifteen people visited several achievements before undertaking the visit of the urban renewal of Abymes and of Pointe-à-Pitre, considered as reference in the region. The members of the delegation also took note of the projects that remain to be built in order to have a complete vision.

From the first infrastructures visited, the members of the Haitian mission became aware of the disproportion of the limited resources available to Haiti compared to Guadeloupe "We have discovered some great achievements in this renovation. For Port-au-Prince, we managed to mobilize 32 million euros from Europe over 5 years. The challenge for us is to see what we can do with this funding, while taking into account our economic reality. We also have problems of lack of expertise and we do not have a company specializing in land planning [...]" commented the Haitian city planner Rose-May Guignard.

Nevertheless, these exchanges could create an environment conducive to collegial work experiences in order to help Haiti better understand the assembly of urban renovation operations and allow to consider their application in Haiti and to be more efficient in assembling grant application files with partners.

It was also discussed to consider a skills network between Guadeloupe and Haiti. According to city planner Francis Ampe "the renovation of downtown Port-au-Prince can be inspired by that of Pointe-à-Pitre, even if the urban and political situation and the financial means are not the same."

HL/ HaitiLibre