Officials visit Haiti as part of UN efforts to boost economy, status of women

Officials from the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and Division for the Advancement of Women have arrived in Haiti as part of the world body’s efforts to help the country as it works to consolidate democracy.

A delegation from the Ad Hoc Advisory Group of ECOSOC is on a four-day mission to assess Haiti’s economic and social development strategies, according to a news release from the UN Mission in the country (MINUSTAH), which was established in October 2004 after an insurgency forced then President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to go into exile.

Led by Canadian Ambassador John McNee, the team is working to evaluate the current situation in Haiti and assess the post-conflict reconstruction challenges faced by the country.

Among other tasks, the Group will examine the work of the UN country team and international assistance by all players on the ground, including follow up to recommendations made after it conducted a visit to Haiti in 2005.

In another development, a high-level delegation from the Division on the Advancement of Women met today in Port-au-Prince with the senior UN envoy to the country, Mr. Edmond Mulet.

This delegation, which arrived on Monday, is in Haiti to work in close collaboration with the Government to implement the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. Haiti, which joined the pact in 1981, is scheduled to report to the committee which monitors it next year.