Following the devastation of the two storms, the 60 damage to the agriculture sector, there is the possibility if not handled well that in a couple of months time there is a food scarcity issue. Food price going up or by simply not being a table. That can create a distraction. Im using a very soft term of distraction because socioeconomic conditions can you terminate deteriorate. So we have to keep that in mind. I think the government is very much aware of that. The holding of the elections. Im very pleased that things have fallen in place, for now. We stand ready to assist in that process. And in terms of the message to the International Community, i think we must be prepared as an International Community to adjust our approach. And to be critical of ourselves. And to learn from the experien experience. There is need for reflection. There is need for an assessment. May be now is the time to assess three years of assistance to haiti and to see what weve learned over the past three years from what is the best way to do things, and how not to do it. And i want to recall there, and i will close with this, they were six parameters discussed on the 25th of january, 2010 in montreal during an industry leading about 80. One was as i mentioned before, ownership. Im very happy to see id like to give content to them. To that objective. Second is we worked together. I think theres a lot that still needs to be done. Building synergies, creating synergies among organizations, jointly operating projects. Between the different units on creating for development. I think those things are important. Then sustainability. That will be there for haiti or a longterm but i think that commitment whether we feel disappointed or not should continue. Effectiveness, there are questions about how effective it has been. Again the positive stories are there but they need to be told. And i think that is what we need to repeat all the time. Inclusiveness, not only from the International Community but also in haiti itself, the different stakeholders, but the trend was fortunate to work with them to organize to conferences to mobilize globally. In the last one is accountability. You know, the process will be accountable. That is one that goes back to the reports which need to be given back. We are very realistic. Obligation i believe. So weve reassess the relationship between haiti and the International Community over the past three years on the basis of these parameters i think we can draw important lessons from which we can learn, adjust our strategy and make life for the haitians much better and continue that process. The oas stand ready to do that and if so need be, our beautiful building is available to Member States to have such dialogue. I thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much, ambassador sir, for your insightful comments and your optimism and your grounding and the realities that face us all. I think we have time only for a few questions before we have to conclude. But i do invite anyone who has a question for either ambassador to post them. Could we have a microphone, please . If you would identify yourself, that would be helpful. Alfred. Thank you for the Wilson Center for holding this. Question to ambassador adams. How are you sir . Good to see you again. In light of what happened last week with the folks in canada with regards to the new outlook, in terms of aid to haiti, and also in light of the fact that you have a new team that is coming in at stake, new budgetary limitations that are coming this year, how do you see the United States government reacting, or how does it plan to allocate these funds, you know, would that have any effect on whats going on in the future . Sure. Is this on . Yeah, you can harry, good. Sorry. Canada is, i talk to canadians all the time here they are good partners, and the new conservative government is reviewing a to a lot of countries, including haiti. But they are continuing projects that have already been approved and funded and they have a long pipeline. So, you know, i think maybe a little too much has been made of, you know, theyre stopping in haiti. Theres no evidence theyre stopping in haiti. I think the are just reassessing their work, which is fine. With regard to the United States, i dont see any real change in keeping haiti a priority. It is a priority of the obama administration. He wasnt reelected. Number one. Number two, its very popular in the United States. Half of all American Families gave money for haiti after the earthquake. Every little town in america sent a group to work down there and have seen firsthand the challenges in haiti and have an appreciation for them, and are supportive of our help. Theres broad bipartisan support, only congress, for haiti over the years. So while, you know, certainly secretary clinton and some of her aides have been very passionate about haiti, i think that will continue. Youll still be stuck with me by the way for a while. [laughter] any other comments or questions . Okay, theres one over there and then i will turn it over for concluding remarks. Thank you very much. And philips again. Just a question. A lot of emphasis, not only in reports about eight to haiti and some of the failures, but in assistance to other countries, really emphasize the deficit of local knowledge on the part of internationals, americans who go there to help. With the best of intention. So its very difficult to practice local ownership if those were going there to work on the ground dont have a fairly sophisticated knowledge of the place they are trying to help. So my question is, what are both of your organizations doing in terms of recruiting people who know the language, know the history, know the culture, et cetera . And getting them before theyre sent to come in this case, haiti. Thank you. Actually my deal with ambassador ramdin is i answer the easy ones and he takes the tough ones but i will take a stab at this. A couple of challenges here. One, we are lucky in haiti a lot of the big organizations have been working, like habitat and that, have been working there for many years. I think there are couple admits here. One is that there is no ngl that works in haiti that doesnt have a reason to build local capacity as fast as possible. It costs an enormous amount of money to keep an expatriate worker in haiti for a year. I mean, thats the reality. Its much, much more Cost Effective to train haitians. One obstacle there though is the fact that haiti is the most brain draining country in the world. The World Bank Estimates living in montreal or new jersey or miami. So that is a challenge. There is in some areas, there is a thin expertise pool in haiti. When usaid and others look for expertise, on the citation americans are active bidders, but so are others. I mean, i do think thats as big a problem to get people down there who know whats going on. The other problem that i think exist frankly until recent is engagement of the haitian side. This is a haitians led reconstruction, you know, its not one imposed by us or habitat for humanity and their imperialism. But, you know, you have to have haitian partners to engage on the other side to give approvals, to give their input. And for a long time we didnt get much of that. I think again recently weve seen great improvements on that. Theres a very good haitians working on this. They still have challenges in that area, you know, fielding a full team on the gridiron. But theyre getting better. And i think one of the results of this is their own government needs Civil Service and other reform and theyre taking a look at that. They need to strengthen own governmental capacity in a number of ways, and thats a huge challenge. And they also need to be centralized and i think that although the. Theres considerable pressure for them to do that with a new parliamentarian. Every parliamentarian wants his home district to be taken care of, and thats a good thing in democracy. So did i answer your question . Very briefly, can you hear me . Two things, in addition to a tom said. One is that when ngos would want to operate in haiti, or with the resources, the different age of coming to know local circumstances. Talk to media, talk to the officers. So many. Thats an ad thats an avenue which should not be underestimated because i think our experts and office in haiti can assist in indicating we are the priority, the government views, work with the already established organizations in haiti. That is i think the best source. Because they are already settled in haiti and habitat and all the others. The other thing on the haitian side, through the new mechanism of dialogue but also coordination, the element of engagement i think its important that the haitian authorities manage that on their own much better. In terms of understanding with who is willing to assist the haitians, but also to direct them, to guide them with the best they could operate so that in that, could Gain Knowledge of situation on the ground. It doesnt make sense to leave ngo to just operate in haiti. Theres good will and there is could use of the money but we have to do in the right way. So i hope that through this mechanism we will get a better registration of ngos how they operate so the haitian authorities can also say we are involved in directing this process. I have some feelings in that sense in the past years. The commitment is there and i think we should appreciate it that we all want to help of the local level to assist the haitian people. Thank you very much. Im sure we could continue for quite a while, but leave them laughing. I really think this has been inspiring and very important discussion. I will now turn it over in front of our beautiful picture of haiti, past hasnt past, present and future. Fifty. Thank you. Its a rich meeting, and with lots of points that have been made to the emphasize, and also were heading over time. Women going to do is get myself 10 minutes, and ill get as far as i can get and then i think we were wrapup at that point. There is i think the number of lessons of what weve heard and what weve seen happen in haiti over the last three years. Lessons for haitis and lessons for all of us in this room. One is in theoretical discussions about postdisaster relief and Economic Development and postconflict, theres a buzz word is making the rounds, resilient. A resilience is clearly important, but i think what we also hear today is resilience of what. Because if its the bad things that are resilient, then are we really moving ahead in the game . And i think what becomes very clear in all the presentations today is that when thinking about postdisaster relief, one needs to think about how to harness the resilience of local societies for change. Its not simply enough to rebuild what was there before, either in the physical structure of a society or in the political and economic infrastructure. Now to do so requires an element which were very bad at thinking about, time. Over and over and over again, i think each of the speakers raise questions about the importance of time. The importance of sequence, the importance of trying to understand what it takes to accomplish something in a very complex situation. The ambassador said we cant sprint to the finish line. If indeed we move to the point that were beginning to address big issues of a stable political system, by improved institutional environment, land rights, rule of law, judicial reform. None of this changes are going to happen overnight. And its very hard for people in mr. Mudd answer to elected officials or have to answer to boards of directors who are saying, show me the results. Its very hard for us to come to terms with the fact that the engagement of habitat for humanity for 27 years in haiti may actually be a really brief moment of time, not a long moment of time. But we need to begin to highlight the time of dimension what is happening. And that links to another theme which came through, throughout the proceedings today. We need to try to develop appropriate untenable standards of success. Are the 10,000 homes and 55,000, people housed in a project that eric talked about, is that an accomplishment . Yes, it is an encouragement but its not necessarily, it doesnt seem like anacondas but if you talk about 2 million displaced people. Like time when we think about what we mean by success, we have to operate at several different levels, and we cant find ourselves despairing, his project only produced 10,000 homes for safety 5000 people, when there are 2 Million People who were displaced. What we have to think about is what has been achieved and what the ripple effects and the accumulation of benefits to come from those homes. And this gets to another point, which is we really need humility. This is probably the most difficult thing for people who become energized to go out and address the problem, have to come to terms with. Humility. The task of rebuilding haiti, by definition, is going to take more than three years your because you are not just building the physical destruction of that moment, horrific as it was, but you are simultaneously having to address a whole range of questions job rooted in place and in context. So to come in and say, you do this, we have the silver bullet, with 10,000 ngos running all over haiti, we have the answers, its all going to turn around at once. Really, i think, goes to an attitude that one experience is not just in the situation but one sees in many places around the world, and leads to all sorts of mischief. And how we come to terms of whats happened. And this leads to a point which has been common by everybody, and this comes to my old soviet experience studying soviets, you cant successfully plan the life of others unless the other people are involved. Whatever happens has to be inclusive. And it does have to be inclusive of the entire society. It has to include those who normally dont have voice, but it does also have to include those who have had maybe too much voice. Because of us with the kinds of huge transformation to everybody in this room is saying is necessary, it cant happen unless everyone is empowered. And that means that theres a long hard slog ahead in terms of institutional and political reform. So should we despair . Do we have to believe in miracles to believe that haiti is going to be a better place . In a generation. I think not that i think this really goes to how we think about it all. If we assume that anything less than having portauprince become copenhagen will be failure, this is going to fail. But if we think out 50 years and think about the kinds of cities and kinds of communities in the world that will be shaping the world in the 21st century, that will be producing answers to 21st century problems, maybe portauprince is actually a much better place to look than copenhagen. We need to understand the true historical events by definition low probability outcomes. But historical events have been. Low probability outcomes happen. And we have to draw upon that knowledge to keep in mind that its not just about rebuilding, its about rebuilding better and rebuilding better is possible. I wrote a history of washingtons in 1960 that neighborhood was destroyed and there were lots and lots of efforts to put together again. There was actually, they came very close to a plan is a dream, a megaproject that would have destroyed and never. And at the end of the day that happened, and when that didnt happen everyone involved had to fall back on little steps with little feet, building by building renovation, the kind of projects we have heard about. Low and behold it we are 25, 30 years later in u street is successful. I hope the accumulation of a small project that we saw, which seem small, particularly when one has to take a look at the scale of the problem, i hope that we are reminded, maybe when some people here gather to mark the 25th or the 30th anniversary of this 2010 earthquake, that what has happened is the accumulation of meaningful small steps to the point of meaningful quantitative change. Qualitative change but if you think about the challenge that what, we can ways in which we can see progress and we can understand that it is possible to rebuild better. Thanks. [applause] that was great. Thank you so much, and thank you, everybody for being such great participants. Thank you. [applause] he could read the president s mood, unlike anyone else. He came as close as anyone to gaining a mix into what Robert Sherwood calls roosevelt heavily force did interior. He, unlike mrs. Roosevelt, he knew when to be still in the presence of the president , when to press him, or when to back off and tell a joke. After he won the election, Wendel Willkie we beat was in his office, and they remained friends. And wilkie said to the president , why do you keep that man so close to you . That man being hopkins. Wilke did not like hopkins. And roosevelt said, you know, you may be in this Office Someday and you will understand. But he asks for nothing except to serve me. Trusted adviser. Trusted advisor, friend and confidant to fdr, Harry Hopkins lived in the Roosevelt White house for three and a half years. David roll on the hopkins touch sunday at 10 p. M. Eastern on booktv on cspan2. Yesterday, the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau released new rules for mortgage lenders. These regulations include limits on fees and rules to ensure that borrowers are able to repair their lives. Cfpb director Richard Cordray announced a new financial regulations at a public hearing in baltimore. Maryland senator ben cardin and congressman Elijah Cummings also spoke at this twohour event. Whose mission is to help Consumer Finance market work. By making rules more effective, by consistently and fairly enforcing those rules, and by empowering consumers to take more control over their economic lives. I am the acting associate director for external affairs, welcome. Todays field hearing is being live stream at consumerfinance. Gov, and you can follow cfpb on facebook and on twitter at at cfpb. We will begin todays field hearings with remarks from some wellknown maryland luminaries your then you have some cfpb director Richard Cordray. This will be followed by a Panel Discus