HNPW Conference 2021

The role of nontraditional actors in the humanitarian sector continue to evolve with key stakeholders among diaspora and the private sector. While mobilization of resources remains a critical challenge for the Humanitarian Assistance landscape, models to engage, coordinate and integrate such actors into this industry remain limited. Across the sector, innovative partnership strategies to connect and sustain local community responses during disaster continue to be explored within the international field with a growing interest in new players, their resources, and ideas for evolving traditions of the sector.

On Saturday August 14, 2021, Haiti was hit by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that devastated its Southwest Region. That same day, some 80+ Haitian diaspora members came together to coordinate their response efforts through the Haitian Diaspora Emergency Response Unit (HDERU), which continued to meet daily until October 2021. In a real-life application of the Framework for Diaspora Engagement in Humanitarian Assistance, IOM, HRA, members of HDERU, and humanitarian actors in Haiti streamlined communication and coordination both among the diaspora and between the diaspora and humanitarian actors.

This session will discuss how the US-Haitian diaspora mobilized together to internally coordinate, communicate, and operationalize their community response platform. Using the many lessons learned from previous disasters from 2010 earthquake to 2017 Hurricane Matthew, the diaspora unit activated its SOPs to support national coordination of local diaspora efforts, including exchange of situation reports and updates, local assessments, identification of private sector resources, formation of sector focal points, and collective fundraising and donations, and more. Mechanisms of coordination with local actors, particularly Haiti’s local disaster response team (DPC/COUN), civil society liaison, and support from IOM’s diaspora liaison, will also be showcased. Attendees will hear from HRA, IOM, and other keys actors regarding lessons learned from the response and ongoing recovery efforts utilizing the Framework for Diaspora Engagement in Humanitarian Assistance. Attendees will see how the Framework has been implemented in this case study and imagine how it could be adapted in other contexts by:

1. Showcasing the HDERU Model and cluster coordination efforts during the relief and recovery from the 2021 Earthquake and ongoing recovery efforts.

2. Demonstrating how the Framework, specifically, the Internal Coordination model can be utilized and adapted by other diasporas to specific contexts (e.g. conflict and disaster response)

3. Exploring lessons learned through this case study and how to improve coordination among diaspora and external partners and humanitarian actors