We pledge to respect the dignity of Haitian people and reject the voyeuristic normalization of Black suffering. We will not use images that dehumanize people or fail to respect people’s dignity, like images of people who are naked or dirty, or that feature people who did not provide consent to being pictured.

We pledge to use respectful language, to not use language perceived as offensive by Haitians, such as descriptions of Haiti as the “poorest country in the hemisphere” without explaining how Haiti became so poor (impoverishment vs. poor), and other clichés that have historically justified interventions that disrespected Haitian autonomy or presented Haitians as passive victims rather than autonomous individuals facing challenges that are the direct result of slavery, colonialism, and racism.

We pledge to be specific, stop collecting donations for “Haiti,” and to instead articulate specific geographic regions and particular needs that we will work to address in accordance with a context-specific assistance plan.

We pledge to be transparent, make public our work plans for carrying out our efforts, including information on which populations will be served by certain interventions, specific strategies, and partners (along with information regarding how long we’ve worked with them and our criteria for selecting them) to the extent practicable permitted without revealing personal information or putting anyone in danger. The information will be made public on our website and, where practicable, on other public Haitian forums such as radio.

We pledge to respect Haitian leadership, coordinate with and/or notify national and local officials in Haiti, including the local councils (CASEC) and mayors in the area and ministry responsible for specific interventions, as well as - where appropriate for disaster response - with the corresponding sectoral working groups coordinated by UN OCHA in partnership with the Haitian Directorate for Civil Protection. We also pledge to involve local community members and civil society into the design, execution, and evaluation of projects that affect or have the potential to affect them to the extent possible.

We pledge to be inclusive, to carry out our work in a way that prevents discrimination against historically disempowered groups such as women, sexual minorities, disabled persons and impoverished people, and to follow practices that systematically integrate members of disempowered groups into decisions about our initiatives.

We pledge to reinforce Haitian capacity, prioritize and, to the extent practicable, invest in local resources for procurement and employment. In so doing, we commit to ensuring that salaries for Haitians are sufficient to constitute a living wage commensurate with their skills or relevant knowledge.

We pledge to support the public good, providing aid that sustainably reinforces public structures and services, including roads, water, electricity, schools, and communication systems.

We pledge to address the long-term, to be accountable to existing sustainable development efforts and have a plan to expedite the emergency phase and move into the recovery and rebuilding phases. As such we commit to sharing knowledge and any necessary tools with the affected population to enable local ownership of any ongoing activities.