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Ms. Laurie Richardson is a US national with direct experience of macro- to micro-level challenges across the Humanitarian Development-Peace Nexus from 30+ years of work supporting sustainable development, community resilience, peacebuilding, and inclusive governance in Haiti (20 years while based in the country). She specializes in collaborative processes that enable diverse stakeholders to work together toward shared goals.
An expert in citizen security issues in Haiti, Ms. Richardson is committed to expanding the pipeline for trauma-sensitive conflict transformation services in Haiti, including those engaging directly with armed actors.
In addition to peacebuilding, she has experience in child protection, disaster risk reduction, education, rural livelihoods, and the prevention of violence against women and girls. As both senior manager and consultant, Ms. Richardson has enabled dozens of international NGOs and Haitian civil society organizations to improve their impact through clearer strategies, better systems, and strengthened capacities to design, fund, deliver, and learn from their programming.
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Mr. Mars is a social entrepreneur who has been involved for over 20 years in the Haitian private sector, managing several assembly and manufacturing companies employing over 3000 people. As an entrepreneur, he also invested in retail and real estate ventures. After experiencing violent conflicts that affected his businesses, Mars became a Founding Member of Lakou Lapè in 2013, a peacebuilding organization based in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He subsequently led the organization for 12 years as its first Executive Director, until October 2025. In that capacity, Mars developed and led over the years several major peace-building efforts in Haiti, such as: “Cultivating Inclusive leadership for Building peace in Haiti” with 77 participants from grassroots neighborhoods, Civil Society, the Business and Political Sectors. “Seeds of Peace: Haitian youth committed to building a better society” with 600 youth participants from Cité Soleil, Bel-Air, and Saint-Martin. He served as the Conflict Sensitivity Advisor for the USAID-funded Haitian Citizen Security Program (HCSP) from 2024 to 2025. He has a Diploma in Business Administration from The New York Business School and holds certificates in conflict transformation and dialogue facilitation from the Glencree Center for Peace and Reconciliation, Dublin, Ireland, and from the Center for Justice and Peace of Eastern Mennonite University, USA. He was selected to participate in 2023 in the Distinguished Humphrey Fellowship Program on Human Rights and Social Justice. He is the author of several articles on peace building in Haiti:” To curb gang violence in Haiti, break with politics as usual.”
Virtual Event:
This webinar presents the first public release of new survey data from the Institute for Research and Action for Peace (IRAP) on security, justice, and governance in Haiti. Drawing on October 2025 data from displaced Haitians and community leaders in Port-au-Prince, the findings highlight chronic violence, concern about civilian harm, limited confidence in force-based responses, and low trust in the justice system ahead of February 2026.