Cooperation for development: Quebec-Haiti
Quebec and Haiti have had a close relationship for several decades, notably in terms of international solidarity and cooperation. A significant number of Quebec stakeholders work in Haiti, including government representatives, teaching facilities, cooperation organizations or the private sector. Quebec's expertise arouses significant interest from its Haitian partners, and the many exchanges between Quebeckers and Haitians contribute to the sustainability or the relationship between these two Francophone states in the Americas.
Since 2012, a yearly call for projects (available online in French only) has been made to manage, sustain and expand collaboration initiatives with this country, which is a priority country in terms of international action for Quebec in culture and communications. This call stems from the 2008 signing of the Declaration commune portant sur la cooperation dans les domaines de la culture et des communications entre le Quebec et la Republique d'Hani (Joint declaration on cooperation in the fields of culture and communication between Quebec and the Republic of Haiti) (available in French only).
The purpose of the call for projects is to strengthen the ties of cooperation, stimulate dialogues and foster the development of lasting partnerships between Quebec and Haiti. More specifically, the goal of this cooperation program is to:
- foster the democratization and dissemination of culture in the book and reading sectors;
- promote professional exchanges of trainers, experts, specialists or researchers and between cultural organizations in the fields of public libraries and cultural activities, museology, tangible and intangible heritage, and cultural industries (especially film and television production);
- with a view of reciprocity, foster the cultural presence of each entity on the other's territory, notably through the co-production, co-publishing, promotion and dissemination of cultural products and work, through the mobility of cultural journalists and artists, by holding events with a collective scope and by developing partnerships between cultural institutions.
Supported projects must lead to the development of complementary and lasting partnerships, demonstrate concrete benefit and help to develop and strengthen ties between Quebec and Haiti in the field of culture and communications.
For the 2012-2013, 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 fiscal years, 18 projects totalling $CAD 125K were supported by the MRIF and MCC as part of the bilateral Haiti-Quebec cooperation initiative.
This is the case for the HahaHaiti training internship project which, in the momentum of the collaboration initiative establish over the past two years with the Haitian department of culture to implement a comedy school in Haiti, fostered the emergence of about 30 Haitian comedians in addition to three trainers, thanks to a partnership with Quebec's Just for Laughs' Ecole nationale de l'humour.