Black Immigrant Daily News

A New Era of Island Leadership: The influential negotiating bloc of small island developing States is now helmed by a Pacific country, after official handover by Antigua and Barbuda.

At a special Plenary meeting on Monday 30th January, 2023 featuring the official handover ceremony, the reigns of leadership of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) were handed over by the Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda, to the Pacific Island of Samoa.

This culminates four years of AOSIS Chairmanship within the Caribbean region, with Belize serving prior to Antigua. The regional rotation of Chairmanship ensures fully inclusive representation among all Caribbean, Pacific, African, Indian Ocean and South China Seas members.

AOSIS plays an integral role in international climate and sustainable development negotiations, and has been central to the advancement of small island developing States’ priorities. Significantly, AOSIS has been a key figure in the milestone achievement of a loss and damage fund establishment at the recent COP27 in November, 2023.

As new Chair, Samoa Prime Minister the Honourable Fiam? Naomi Mata?afa vowed to continue the excellent work of the previous Chairs, particularly by amplifying marginalized voices and advocating for the Alliance’s interests on the global stage and to secure global commitments and agreement.

She outlined the Chair’s new vision, which will focus on Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and the Ocean, including issues such as food security, energy, ocean’s health, and more ambition on finance to support the achievement of agreed targets under the SDGs, the Paris Agreement and the SAMOA Pathway.

“For 2023, we will continue the work to advance our collective interests in climate change especially with respect to climate financing and the achievement of the 50/50 split between mitigation and adaptation,” Prime Minister Fiam? said. “We will continue to keep the Loss and Damage flame burning and inject urgency into our efforts aimed at concluding BBNJ negotiations.”

“Sustainable development is a key strategic priority. Economic recovery is an enormous challenge and responsibility. To this end, the importance and effective implementation of the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI) cannot be over-emphasized. The MVI is a tool to assist SIDS in addressing the economic recovery challenge, especially in relation to access to concessional financing, debt regime sustainability and ODA eligibility and effectiveness. AOSIS has been at the forefront of this strategic process, and we must now over the coming 12 months complete what remains to be done.”

“Ocean is the lifeblood for most of our countries. But whilst its sustainable use provides a core pathway towards our future development and livelihoods, like the climate emergency, we must also urgently address the associated risks.” Prime Minister Fiam? highlighted the ocean-climate nexus, plastic pollution negotiations, the Blue Economy, and the Global Biodiversity Framework as key issues.

In his congratulatory address, Prime Minister Gaston Browne of Antigua and Barbuda noted he was placing the Chairmanship in most capable hands, and that his country looked forward to working with the new AOSIS Chair in preparation for the 4th UN International Conference for SIDS in 2024.

Representing the Prime Minister, Ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Dr. Pa’olelei Luteru emphasized that the AOSIS Chair would accelerate advocacy for concrete outcomes to ensure not just the survival, but the prosperity of small island developing States.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Haitians in the United States are facing enormous pressure to help family and friends under a U.S. migration program announced this month that may help some people escape Haiti’s escalating violence but is also putting strain on the nation’s diaspora.

Giubert St Fort, a South Florida resident from Haiti said he was inundated with calls almost immediately after the Biden administration said on Jan. 5 it was opening a new legal pathway for migrants from four countries, including Haiti who had U.S. sponsors.

“Things are very tense because everyone is expecting a call from someone,” said St Fort, 59, a social worker who is already sponsoring members of his family.

“Many people unfortunately are not in a position to sponsor family members or friends back home, but they are receiving calls nonstop.”

Haitians living in the United States, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet, say they are being sought out by everyone from immediate family members to distant acquaintances or neighbors they haven’t spoken with in years, community advocates and immigration lawyers said.

Desperation to leave has grown in Haiti amid a political crisis and a spike in violence that most recently has included a wave of killings of policemen, triggering protests by angry officers who attacked the residence of interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry.

U.S. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has struggled with a record number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border including the arrival of more than 10,000 Haitians to southern Texas in September 2021. Many of asylum-seekers deported back to Haiti or rapidly expelled, despite objections from human rights groups and a U.S. career diplomat who said doing so was “inhumane.”

In response, Biden expanded pandemic-era restrictions put in place by his Republican predecessor former President Donald Trump to rapidly expel migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to Mexico. At the same his administration opened up the possibility for up to 30,000 migrants from those same countries to enter via air per month by applying for humanitarian “parole.”

‘UNDUE STRESS’

The parole program is aimed at encouraging migrants to safely travel to the United States instead of braving boats or grueling land journeys through Central America to the border. U.S. officials say illegal crossings by the four nationalities have already dropped dramatically.

A senior administration official said last week that about 1,700 people from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua have arrived in the United States through the program in recent weeks, with thousands more approved for travel.

But finding willing sponsors is proving difficult for many Haitians as many immigrants already in the United States are concerned they won’t be able to provide for others with the rising cost of living and soaring rents, advocates and attorneys said.

Tammy Rae, an American lawyer who works in Haiti, gave a radio interview to describe the humanitarian parole program and was later flooded by calls from people seeking a sponsor.

She said her clients have described being expected to sponsor entire extended families and in some cases face threats.

“It’s true that this is a program that will unite families,” said Rae. “I would say it’s also a program that will place undue stress on families and cause family divisions.”

The Department of Homeland Security, which administers the program, did not respond to a request for comment.

Guerline Jozef, executive director of non-profit immigration advocacy group Haitian Bridge Alliance, which is helping Haitians find sponsors, described the dilemma.

“People will say ‘I have more than one cousin I would like to sponsor, I’m only able to sponsor one of them,’” Jozef said. “And that creates a major issue because how do you choose which one to sponsor?” She is also opposed to the expulsions of Haitians and other migrants arriving at the southwest border, many who are seeking U.S. asylum.

Jozef said immigrant advocates have long fought for measures such as humanitarian parole, but said the program should not be attached to systematic deportation or expulsion of immigrants seeking asylum.

“Unfortunately, it is attached to a lot of bad policies. It is being used to literally deter people from seeking protection at the U.S-Mexico border.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Caribbean Region has lost a true stalwart and environmental sustainability champion, Yves Renard. Yves first came to public attention in the Eastern Caribbean in the early 1980s when he spearheaded the Eastern Caribbean Natural Area Management Programme (ECNAMP).

Based in Saint Lucia, he worked with government agencies, community interests and resource users to promote the then-novel concepts of community-based management and co-management.

The work in which he engaged, especially along the southeast of Saint Lucia ranged from helping to introduce (the now well-established) seamoss cultivation to assisting charcoal producers to harvest wood from the mangrove forest in a sustainable manner.

During that period, Yves interacted with a range of government, Non-Governmanetal Organisations (NGOs) and community interests drawn from, among others, the forestry and fisheries sectors. He was also involved in the World Heritage Site Inscription process for the Saint Lucia Pitons and provided advice to the OECS for a proposed World Heritage Sites and Conserved Areas Network.

Director General of the OECS Dr. Didacus Jules described Yves Renard as

“an environmental visionary and pioneer whose commitment to community and people was unmatched. Yves’s genius lay in his use of science to create solutions that were sustainable yet provided economic value (e.g. growing of Leucaena plant for multiple communal uses – charcoal, animal fodder, skin products etc). His passion for people ensured that every initiative was about the cultivation of community. His resourcefulness planted the seed of many community and environmental initiatives that have blossomed – many years later – into lucrative sources of income for SIDS”.

In 1989, ECNAMP transitioned to the Caribbean Natural Resources Institute (CANARI), a non-profit operating in both Saint Lucia and the U.S. Virgin Islands and with a focus on “research, policy influence, advocacy, and capacity building towards sustainable livelihoods and participatory decision making and management of the region’s natural resources.” Yves served as the organisation’s Executive Director from 1992-2001. Since its establishment, CANARI, now headquartered in Trinidad has extended its reach to cover the entire insular Caribbean.

In the early 1990s, Yves, through CANARI, played a critical role in the planning and the conduct of the stakeholders’ consultations in Soufrier? (Saint Lucia), aimed at managing resource use conflicts along the west coast of the island. This highly successful process eventually resulted in the establishment of the internationally recognised Soufriere Marine Management Area (SMMA).

In the field of natural resource management and conservation, Yves served the region in many capacities. Among these were his tenure as President of the Caribbean Conservation Association, from 1995 to 2000, and his tenure as the Caribbean representative on the IUCN Council from the late 1980s to early 1990s.

Following his leadership of CANARI, Yves worked as an independent consultant, undertaking several assignments for the OECS. He was active in several areas including, but certainly not limited to institutional development, social policy, land policy, and environmental literacy. In the lead-up to COP-21, for example, he worked with PANOS and others to get Caribbean journalists and musicians to Paris to ensure that the people of the region were kept abreast of the climate negotiations and that the region’s climate experience was effectively heard.

However, Yves did not confine his interests to consulting, research, policy, and conservation. He held a deep appreciation for the Arts and played a leading role in expanding the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival to the south of the island. He was well known for his wide-ranging community development endeavours in his adopted community of Laborie (Saint Lucia), including the establishment of a youth steelpan orchestra.

Yves Renard was truly a man of many talents, with a uniquely analytical thought process. Yet, he never displayed any air of arrogance and was always able to laugh at himself. Indeed, his easygoing nature made working with him easy and no doubt contributed to his ability to make such a huge impact. His passing on January 20, 2023, leaves a void in the hearts of many but his legacy will endure.

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