Environmental and Economic Opportunities for Growth and Development in Haiti and the Dominican Republic

De Camps is a lawyer (Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra) with a master’s degree in International Business Law (Boston University) and Environmental Management with a specialty in Energy, Business, and Environmental Policy (Yale).

Prior to her current position, she worked as an energy lawyer for renewable energy projects in her native Dominican Republic and as a researcher for Yale and the National University of Singapore, where she led research on policies for energy transition and climate change in small island developing states (SIDS). In addition, she joined the Green Climate Fund (GCF) in South Korea, where she worked as legal consultant evaluating and negotiating projects for climate change mitigation and adaptation in more than 15 developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Africa, and also at the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) as an expert on climate policy and finance, advising governments in strengthening the capacities on issues of climate change, access to climate finance, gender, and environmental and social safeguards.

Currently, she is deputy minister of international cooperation at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources of the Dominican Republic, where she works on the integration of climate change in the national policies, projects and programs; articulates the offer and request of international funds for environment and climate change projects and programs; and administers and is the national focal point of international conventions and agreements, including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Fernández is an associate fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). He is also a naturalist, author, and editor of nine photographic books, a documentary filmmaker, and a researcher. Among his titles in print are: “Hispaniola: A Photographic Journey Through Island Biodiversity” (Grupo SID/Harvard University Press, 2007), “Orchids of the Dominican Republic and Haiti” (AMCHAM 2007), “Jamaica: A Photographic Journey Through The Land of Wood and Water” (IMCA 2008), “Cuba, Un Encuentro Con Su Naturaleza” (IMCA 2010), “Reserva Cientifica Ebano Verde, Un Encuentro con la Naturaleza” (APAP 2010), "Un Siglo de Historia, Central Romana Corporation" (CR 2012), "Legado de Vida, Parques Nacionales de la Republica Dominicana" (ACAP 2012), "Transformacion, El Ciclo de Vida de las Mariposas de la Española" (IMCA 2014), and "Palmas del La Española" (Grupo SID 2017).

Fernández has one of the most extensive image banks on the landscapes, flora, and fauna of the Greater Antilles. His photographs have been published in the “Wildlife As Canon Sees It” ad campaign for National Geographic, and in Condor, Nature Conservancy, and Living Bird, among others. His photography is represented by Nature Picture Library. He is also a co-author of the field guide “Birds of the Dominican Republic and Haití” (Princeton University Press, 2006) and has collaborated in describing new reptiles and plants.

Fernández serves on the boards of Fundación Progressio and Fondo Peregrino RD and is an environmental advisor for Fundacion Propa-gas. He just released “Naturalista Isleño,” a documentary mini-series on a variety of Caribbean subjects.

In January 2012, François was appointed vice consul of cultural affairs for the Consulate General of Haiti in Miami. In 2014, he was promoted to consul and then consul general.

Due to his strong connection with the Haitian Diaspora, François was appointed to serve as minister of the diaspora ("Haitians living abroad"). In September 2018, he became Ministre Délégué en charge de la Citoyenneté et du Patriotisme. With this transversal position, François has worked with almost every sector of the country and all ministries within the government. He served as a mediator and bridgebuilder on high-level coordination and community dialogue involving the president, prime minister, and members of the government to hear from Haitians regarding the socioeconomic challenges they face, including rural Haitians throughout Haiti's 10 provinces.

François was also part of the COVID-19 task force, where he oversaw the distribution of 19 million Haitian-made masks throughout the country and part of the reopening process of the airport. He was also in charge of the coordination for the health and security teams of different cultural and social activities within the country. In November 2020, he was given the responsibility to oversee the coordination of a large-scale civil registration and identification campaign in Haiti and in the Haitian diaspora, including Haitians living in the Dominican Republic.

Gómez-Valenzuela holds a PhD in economics from the Autonomous University of Madrid and an MA in social studies of science and technology from Maastricht University and the European Interuniversity Association of Science and Technology in The Netherlands. He also holds an MS in environmental economics from CATIE Costa Rica and training in valuing natural resources from the Conservation Strategy Fund-Stanford University, among other studies and training.

Gómez-Valenzuela has been a consultant to international organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Institute for Vocational Training (UNITAR), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECID), among others. He was deputy minister of science and technology of the Dominican Republic (2007-09), responsible for formulating the first national framework of science, technology, and innovation (STI) policies. He was also vice president of the Inter-American Commission on Science and Technology of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Washington, D.C. (2008-09).

Gómez-Valenzuela is a member of the GLOBELICS (Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems) and a member of the Scientific Committee of LALICS (Latin American Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems), a subsidiary of GLOBLELICS. He is also a member of the American Economic Association (AEA), the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), and the American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS).

He has scientific publications in high-impact journals, pioneers in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean in environmental economics and science, technology, and innovation policies (STI), and several books and book chapters published nationally and internationally.

Gómez-Valenzuela has participated as a speaker or panelist in around twenty conferences such as the GLOBELICS World Conference, the Biannual Atlanta Conference on Science and Technology hosted by Georgia Tech in the United States of America, the Annual Conference of the European Forum For Studies of Policies for Research and Innovation (Eu-SPRI), the Annual Conference of the National Council for Science and the Environment of the United States (NCSE), among others.

He has been an undergraduate and postgraduate professor at the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), the University of Costa Rica (UCR), Visiting Academician of the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research of the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom and the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM). He is currently a research professor at INTEC, a university of which he has been vice president for research from 2015 to 2021. His research interests include environmental analysis and valuation, socio-technical systems, complex systems, socio-technical transitions, and STI policies for sustainability.

Harold Pierre is a consultant for governments and international organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also is a PhD candidate in politics at Nottingham Trent University (NTU, UK) with research presentations at Oxford and Cambridge as well as regional and international conferences.

Founder of NAPSA, a youth organization aiming at economic development and democratic consolidation in Haiti, Harold Pierre previously worked in the Dominican Republic for the Ministry of Finance for PUCMM and UNIBE as a lecturer in economics and politics, respectively. He earned three master’s degrees, one each in economics (PUCMM, Dom Rep), politics (NTU), and public administration (Complutense University of Madrid), as well as specialization in Culture of Peace (University of Barcelona) and fellowship in Open Government in the Americas (OAS).

Pierre-Louis served as the prime minister of Haiti from 2008 to 2009, the second woman to hold this position. She was born in 1947 and  studied economics at the University of New York, where she finally got her MA in 1976. She holds honorary degrees in the humanities from Saint Michael College, Vermont, and the University of San Francisco.

Pierre-Louis worked as a clerk in Bank and as assistant director general in the National Airport Authority of Port-au-Prince. She also owned and directed a small business for several years. In 1985, she started working as a consultant manager of the Fondation Haïtienne de Développement. She then became a national trainer with the Misyion Alfa, the national program of alphabetization of the Catholic Church of Haiti. From 1989 until 1991, she was research director of the Cultural Institute Karl Lévêque, which enabled her to participate actively in the construction of the civil society. In 1991, she became a member of the presidential cabinet of Aristide and was put in charge for the redefinition of missions of the state. In 1995, she started working as the executive director for the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté – FOKAL until she was appointed as the prime minister of the Republic of Haiti.

Pierre-Louis was also a university teacher prior to becoming prime minister. Her courses focused on “Culture and society in the Caribbean” and “The History of the Great Civilizations.” She was a member of a review “Chemins Critiques” which published several issues on politics, economics, arts and culture, from 1989 through 2006.

Currently, she acts as the president of the Fondation Connaissance et Liberté – FOKAL and is the director of the reconstruction and development program of the Open Society Institute in New York. She has also been working as a professor at the Department of Educational Sciences of the University of Quisqueya since 2004.