September 23rd, 2026
Dear Friend,
The Roots team is in New York City this week for the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meetings, but I wanted to share three important updates with you:
- We officially announced our 2026 Commitment to Action at the Haiti Action Network at CGI today.
- Early bird pricing for our Annual DC Event featuring former US Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen ends tonight.
- Gwoup Konbit just completed another year of Konbit Seed Grants for social change, giving microgrants to 24 diverse, community-powered projects across Haiti.
OUR COMMITMENT TO ACTION
Today, September 23rd, 2026, Roots announced our 2026 Commitment to Action at the Haiti Action Network working session of the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meetings.
Haiti is experiencing one of the most severe social, political, economic, and security crises in its history. Despite decades of international assistance, there remains no widely recognized Haitian-developed framework through which international actors can engage with and support locally-led development efforts at scale.
At the same time, Haiti possesses a rich tradition of collective action, mutual aid, and community problem-solving known as Konbit.
As a strategic partner to Gwoup Konbit, a national social movement dedicated to reawakening Konbit in Haitian society, Roots of Development commits to launching the International Konbit Partnership Initiative.
The Initiative will introduce international actors to Konbit as a Haitian framework for locally led development and create practical pathways for them to support and engage with the movement.
In the next three years, the Initiative will engage at least 100 international organizations and institutions, facilitate at least 20 formal partnerships supporting Konbit and Haitian-led development, and mobilize at least $2 million in financial and strategic support for Konbit-aligned initiatives.
GET YOUR TICKETS TO OUR ANNUAL EVENT
Time is running out to get your Early Bird tickets to our Annual DC Event, now just one month away! Use code earlybird before midnight tonight to get $25 off each of your tickets!
You won’t want to miss this event, which will feature a conversation between former US Ambassador to Canada David L. Cohen and NBC News Journalist Yamiche Alcindor. We’re also pleased to announce that Haiti’s Ambassador to the US Lionel Delatour will also be in attendance as a special guest.
SEED GRANTS FOR SOCIAL CHANGE
Gwoup Konbit just concluded another year of its microgrants program, Konbit Seed Grants for Social Change. Over the course of 12 months, they received applications from 235 local groups, associations, and communities across 55 different communes in all ten of Haiti’s departments.
Applicants are evaluated by a panel of judges for their alignment with Konbit values and principles like solidarity, collaboration, transparency, sustainability, and trust. In addition, each eligible applicant submits a video describing their work, which are then posted online by Gwoup Konbit for its followers to vote on.
From 235 applicants, 24 grantees were selected to receive 150,000 Gourdes (just over $1,000 US), training on Konbit, and technical support. Here are just some of the projects that were chosen:
- Strengthening the economic capacity of women through livestock-rearing training in order to improve their food security and create a development model that can be replicated in surrounding areas. (Môle Saint Nicolas, Nord-Ouest Department)
- Creating a library to serve 2,000 students across 35 schools to develop reading and writing habits and strengthen community ties through workshops, cultural events, and dialogues. (Corail, Grand’Anse Department)
- Training 1,500 motorcycle drivers across three communes in traffic safety to reduce accidents and provide them with first aid training in case of an accident. (Cap-Haitien, Nord Department)
- Using basketball as a tool for empowerment to provide training on social entrepreneurship, personal finance, conflict management, gender-based violence, and stress management to 10,000 young women over a five-year period. Those women will then train others in what they learned. (Port-au-Prince, Ouest Department; Petion Ville, Ouest Department; Saint-Marc, Artibonite; Cap-Haitien, Nord Department; and Les Cayes, Sud Department)
These seed grantees are the tangible manifestation of Konbit’s values and principles, impacting a total of almost 28,000 people through true, community-powered projects and programs.