On Monday, the Public Affairs Office of the Embassy of the United States has proceeded at the inauguration of two new buildings of the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP) in the presence of the Ambassador of the United States in Haiti, Pamela White, Florence Duperval, the Minister of Public Health, and representatives of donors.

The inauguration ceremony of two new buildings of public health in Haiti, estimated at more than 3 million U.S. dollars, located at Delmas 33, marks another milestone in the country's recovery and rebuilding since the 2010 earthquake. The buildings will be used by Haiti's Ministry of Public Health and Population (MSPP or Ministere de la Sante Publique et de la Population), MSPP's Division of Epidemiology, Laboratory and Research (Direction d'Epidemiologie, de Laboratoire et de Recherches or DELR) and the Haiti office of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as they work to strengthen the country's public health systems.

"'Building back better' isn't just a slogan, it's a reality in public health. These buildings represent an important step forward to save lives in Haiti. We are grateful to the CDC Foundation and their generous partners for their support and collaboration [....]" declared Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC Director. "These new buildings have an importance far beyond their physical presence—they will serve as a basis and catalyst for programs that will save literally tens of thousands of lives."

The first building replaces the MSPP facility destroyed in the earthquake. This building will serve as a central office from which public health activities will be managed in Haiti by Dr. Florence Guillaume, Minister of Public Health and Population, and her staff. The second building for MSPP's DELR is located in the National Public Health Laboratory (Laboratoire National de Sante Publique) complex and houses a portion of MSPP's surveillance, epidemiology and laboratory staff and CDC's staff in Haiti, who are now working side-by-side in the country. Haiti's Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) is housed in the building as well. FETP is a CDC effort that works with ministries of health, along with other partners, to train public health workers to detect, investigate, and control threats to public health.

CDC Foundation partners financed the buildings through donations and in-kind support. The building for Haitian DELR and CDC staff was funded by a $2 million contribution from the GE Foundation and a $500,000 contribution from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Kaiser Permanente donated $587,000 for the MSPP central office. Partner funding for both buildings also provided furnishings, fixtures, electronics, computers, printers...

"We are grateful that our partners recognized the need for a comprehensive response to the earthquake in Haiti and for their generous contributions to build these new facilities," declared Charles Stokes, president and CEO of the CDC Foundation. "As CDC's nonprofit partner, the CDC Foundation is positioned to help CDC and its public health partners secure crucial resources. This effort is an example of how public-private partnerships can make significant contributions to benefit public health."

The Minister Guillaume declared "These investments are another positive action helping to move Haiti's public health system from the disaster and recovery phase into a longer-term solution. Importantly, these two new buildings have encouraged additional investments. As an example, the investments by the CDC Foundation's partners in our new MSPP building helped leverage additional support from the United Nations (UN) and USAID for an expanded MSPP complex. When this complex opens, it will include an additional 11 buildings to house 250 Haitian public health workers. Altogether, these investments will create synergies to better serve the public health needs of the Haitian people."

HL/ HaitiLibre