Buffett First Friday Lunch: Inside Haiti

Inside Haiti

Join the Roberta Buffett Institute for a faculty research lunchtime talk series on the first Friday of every month. Faculty members give a half-hour talk intended for a broad, multidisciplinary audience of Northwestern students, faculty, and staff, followed by a conversational Q&A. Lunch is provided beginning at 12:15 p.m.

November's Buffett First Friday Lunch, taking place on November 14 due to our fall Buffett Symposium the Friday prior, will feature Buffett Visiting Scholar Roberson Alphonse, head of national news at Le Nouvelliste, Haiti's oldest and largest daily newspaper, and Nathalie Cardichon, an investigative journalist and former leader at several nonprofit agencies in Haiti.

Located in the Caribbean, just a 90-minute flight away from the US, Haiti has become understood as a “failed state" and "open-air hell." Between 2024 and 2025, nearly 10,000 people were killed by gangs, and 1.3 million people were forced to flee their homes. Unemployment affects more than 60% of the active population. Half of Haiti's 11 million residents are living in food insecurity.

The country faces pressing challenges to restore security, control its border and the flow of weapons and ammunitions from the US, hold general elections, emerge from six years of recession, rebuild the state and foundations for an inclusive economy, and put the well-being of the Haitian people back at the center of public policy. Alphonse and Cardichon will share insights into the paradigm shift the nation needs for successful international cooperation in security, defense, trade, investment, and market access.

Please note that 720 University Place is not an ADA-accessible space. Increasing physical access to buildings and facilities is a goal of the University, but not all buildings and venues have been updated.

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