By Patrick Prézeau Stephenson, Rezo Nodwes, Sept. 15, 2025
Why the legitimacy of interlocutors matters—and how a transparent list can widen the table.
The meeting was small and discreet, behind the windows of the Oasis Hotel in Pétion-Ville, the kind of place where Haiti's powerful sometime appears.
According to several accounts, the Organization of American States met yesterday with five Haitian figures, most of them from the health sector. The room was quiet. The country outside was not. And the question that circulated, in living rooms, on WhatsApp, and in the street, was an old but sharp one: in whose name are they speaking?
This question is not petty or parochial. It touches on something fundamental that has distorted Haiti's public life for years: a narrow funnel of interlocutors, called upon again and again to speak on behalf of "civil society," while that same civil society has fragmented into small collectives and sectoral circles—small groups that actually work, often in silos, rarely in coordination. The faces are familiar, sometimes very capable, often in good faith. But the chorus is thin, the mandate, when it is claimed, remains unclear. In the end, a crisis of legitimacy is superimposed on a crisis of credibility, then on a general fatigue—and one has the impression that conversations about Haiti revolve around the same people.
My project—calm, stubborn, and deliberately unspectacular—attempts to answer this question without claiming to resolve the rest. I am building a public and living directory of credible Haitian figures, in the country and in the diaspora, that anyone can consult and challenge. It is not a list to endorse a political line or a back door for insiders. It is a map, drawn with evidence. The objective is simple to state: when international missions arrive, when donors seek partners, when journalists want sources beyond their repertoires, when Haitian coalitions assert “civil society says…”, they have a broader, more transparent, more defensible base.
There's nothing mysterious about how you get onto this list. Basically, it's the requirement to "show your work." A series of reports you've written and published somewhere other than on a personal Facebook page. A school that made it through the closures and reopened with a plan; not a school rumor, but a school with a timetable and, ideally, a letter from the ministry. Institutional connections matter not for their prestige, but because they're verified. Awards and scholarships count if they're confirmed. Media mentions, too—as long as they're from reputable outlets. Volume doesn't equate with value.
This directory aims to broaden the perspective, not to establish a new canon. This means going beyond Port-au-Prince and its reflex to call out the same high-profile figures. It means seeking out the agronomists who repair soils and water systems after the hurricane, the lawyers who discreetly release defendants from pretrial detention, the community health workers who run mobile clinics, the educators who produce open resources when schools close, the cultural intermediaries who keep local memory alive. It means identifying the diaspora engineer who documents their electrical microgrids with Haitian partners—not just a LinkedIn post; the artisanal cooperative manager who can show audited financial statements; the young organizer whose radio archives and meeting records serve as a flashy website.
When a controversy involves a name—and, in Haiti, this is almost always the case—we document, we don't decide. If a serious allegation arises in credible media, we summarize the facts and refer to the sources. We indicate the status: allegation, investigation underway, resolved, not established. This is neither whitewashing nor “cancel.” It's about adding context so that a profile isn't a press release, and a whisper doesn't serve as a verdict.
Entry is not controlled by any single window. Anyone can propose a name, provided they provide at least two independent public sources. A small, neutral, rotating committee verifies the essentials—the nature of the sources, the balance of sectors and regions—and assigns a simple status: candidate, verified, resource (documented, responsive, engaged). Anyone can withdraw, request corrections, or updates. Changes are recorded publicly, in clear terms. Nothing is opaque.
It's not about appointing spokespersons. It's about mapping the landscape, so that we no longer confuse the expertise of five health professionals received by an international organization with a national mandate. The directory makes it easier to ask the right questions: Who would counterbalance this table? Who, from agriculture or education, local justice or commerce, culture or municipalities, should also sit on it? It makes the old excuse—"we couldn't find anyone"—which too often means "we didn't look"—more difficult.
Practicality matters now. International actors—CARICOM, the OAS, UN agencies, major donors—will continue to convene, with or without a broad range of Haitian voices. Haitian coalitions will continue to emerge, often with impressive energy, sometimes with overlapping agendas and divergent tactics. A shared, verifiable reference is a small thing with disproportionate effects: it calms debates about who is “real,” reduces the alibi of small rooms, and valorizes civic work that rarely gets a microphone.
On paper, it looks like a database. In practice, they are brief portraits. There is an agronomist in the South who trains farmers in contour fences and soil restoration, with cooperative reports and seasonal results. A school principal in the Artibonite who, during repeated closures, assembled remedial lessons adopted by neighboring schools; there are letters, not slogans. A women's health organizer in the North who coordinates a network of mobile clinics and publishes schedules for anyone to check. A justice-of-the-peace mentor in the Center who tracks pretrial detention cases, with supporting memos and decisions. An artisan association in Port-de-Paix that has stabilized income through an export cooperative, leaving audited financial statements that dispel natural skepticism. An engineer in the diaspora who helped design a microgrid and opened his documentation for others to adapt or critique.
Ethics is the backbone. The directory is not a political list, and it does not publish personal contact information. It does not claim that institutional neutrality is magic, but it avoids capture by a single camp. Rotating reviewers and ensuring transparency of edits are a matter of hygiene. Territorial equity is monitored, because the gravity of Port-au-Prince is very real. The exercise is “radical” in only one way: it requires evidence.
None of this replaces elections, governance, or the patient work of repairing institutional trust. But it can make good-faith engagement easier. It gives journalists a starting point broader than their inboxes. Donors more than a short list of regulars. Haitian coalitions a transparent base when they claim to speak for. And everyone—supporters, critics, skeptics—a way to debate the substance.
At the Oasis, five people spoke. They may be excellent at what they do; they may each deserve this invitation. The point isn't to disqualify them. It's to dismantle the lazy fiction that they, or any similar small group, encapsulate Haiti's civic life. A directory won't settle every quarrel over representation. It won't abolish the habit of familiar venues. But it can make those habits dated—and transform the question “in whose name do they speak?” into a salutary reflex. Show the work. Show the connections. Widen the table.
If it succeeds, it won't look like a glossy brochure. It will be simpler and more useful: a reliable index, easy to consult and difficult to manipulate, that grows over time, and that draws its strength from its evidence. Haiti has never lacked talent or courage. It has lacked a reliable way to bring out and connect those who carry them. Discipline first. Evidence, always.
Media Contact Patrick Prézeau Stephenson:
Editor manifeste1804@gmail.com
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