In a world of competing demands, there’s a flurry of actions to refocus attention on Haiti only seven months away from elections intended to bring some normalcy to a country so close to the shores of America.

This weekend, a mini-summit on Haiti in Cayenne, the capital of French Guyana, is drawing some eminent personalities. The French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, came from Paris to host the event. The Canadian foreign minister, Pierre Pettigrew, flew into Port-au-Prince Wednesday in a private jet. He held several meetings with top Haitian officials there, including President Alexandre and Prime Minister Latortue, as well as with members of civil society. Yesterday, he departed Port-au-Prince with the prime minister and the United Nations’ civilian chief of the mission to Haiti, Juan Gabriel Valdes, of Chile. Fred Schieck, USAID deputy administrator, had joined them in Port-au-Prince for the trip to Cayenne.

Earlier yesterday, four Haitian Cabinet ministers and the chief of staff of the Haitian president flew to Cayenne, armed with priority projects to be financed. “What could they still be discussing that hasn’t been discussed over the past year,” asked Jacques Adolphe, a Haitian lawyer in Florida, who added, “it’s long past due for the international community to release the funds promised to Haiti last July.” He continued, “Without jobs to occupy people’s time between now and October, I’m afraid the elections will be compromised.”

Indeed, job creation and security are top priorities for a successful transition, according to a fact-finding mission to Haiti that released its “findings and recommendations” Wednesday during a meeting at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Three former American ambassadors – Timothy Carney, Ernest Preeg, and Lawrence Pezzullo – all involved in Haiti either through postings there or past experience directing policy regarding Haiti – were in the island nation late last month. The delegation was under the sponsorship of the Haiti Democracy Project led by James Morrell.

A key paragraph of the executive summary of the findings, posted on the organization’s Web page, www.haitipolicy.org, states that “lively debate centers on whether jobs or security are most urgent.” The delegation concluded, “Long term investment and the permanent employment it generates demand much-improved security in terms of both competent policing and a favorable legal code and improved judiciary.” But there is an urgency to create jobs now, as the interim government has proposed from its inception. The focus on job creation was the purpose of a visit to Washington two weeks ago by Haiti’s new minister of commerce, industry, and tourism, Fritz Kenol. In visits to the State Department, the Commerce Department, USAID, and in the halls of Congress, the focus was put on a preferential trade bill – formerly HERO, or the Haitian Economic Recovery Opportunity Act, now HOPE, the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity Through Partnership Encouragement Act, that is intended to create some 100,000 jobs in Haiti’s hard-pressed textile industry.

HERO, the bipartisan effort of former Senator Graham, a Democrat of Florida, and Senator DeWine, a Republican of Ohio, was overwhelmingly approved in a voice vote by the Senate last year. But HERO has been bogged down in the House. A rare bipartisan entente between the two heavyweights of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat of New York, for the minority and Rep. William Thomas, a Republican of California, gives HOPE a chance.

Meanwhile, the Congressional Black Caucus, quiet for a time on Haiti, is showing a sign of reconnecting with the country. Yesterday and today, a “National/International Symposium” dealing with “the future of democracy and development in Haiti” is underway at Capitol Hill. Rep. John Conyers, a Democrat of Michigan, formerly close to exiled President Aristide, was featured as the one who welcomed the guests to the closed confab that has attracted about 50 invited guests. The press is excluded. Most of the “invited guests” are former Lavalas officials or former sympathizers of that regime.

Interestingly, among the “invited guests” at the symposium is Marc Bazin, the rival presidential candidate to Mr. Aristide in 1990, who is trying to become the standard-bearer for a fragmented Lavalas Family party. He will have to contend with Father Gerard Jean-Juste, a Catholic priest who has remained an Aristide loyalist. Alix Baptiste, the minister for Haitians living abroad, is the sole “invited guest” who is a member of the interim government. He also held a sub-Cabinet post in the Aristide government. In this atmosphere, the announcement by the Inter-American Development Bank of approval of $270 million for urgent projects of high intensity labor couldn’t be more welcome by the authorities in Port-au-Prince.

Mr. Joseph is Haiti’s envoy to Washington.