Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said since taking on the post of United Nations Special Envoy for Haiti in May, he has lobbied successfully to downgrade travel advisories for the island nation, is organizing a trade conference to bring investors there, and has obtained commitments worth millions of dollars from friends around the World – from India to Ireland.

Clinton gave his "progress report" Sunday at the Haitian Diaspora Unity Congress in Miami, a four-day conference that drew about 300 participants, including Prime Minister Michele D. Pierre-Louis, elected officials from Haiti and South Florida and non-Haitians working to better conditions in Haiti. The annual event brought together Haitians from the Americas, Africa and France, in hopes they would come up with recommendations to solve Haiti's slew of problems in what many feel is could be yet another turning point in the country's volatile history.

"I'm an outsider, but I've been going to Haiti for more than 30 years, and I know a little something about economics," said Clinton, fresh from saving two American journalists from North Korea earlier in the week. "It is my opinion that this is by far the best chances that Haiti has had in the 35 years I've been acquainted with it. And the more involved you [the Diaspora] are, the better the odds get," he added.

Clinton's statement echoes a sentiment that ran throughout the conference – at panels, receptions and even informal hallway discussions held at the Trump International Beach Resort in Sunny Isles Beach. A majority of participants said they are optimistic about Haiti, given the combination of a fresh U.S. administration, Secretary Hillary Clinton at her post, Haiti recognizing it needs to turn things around, small signs of changes inside the country, and the Diaspora's willingness to contribute.

Clearing a path for Haiti to move out its perpetual morass are such current advantages as the HOPE II legislation the U.S. Congress passed last year to encourage textile industry investment, the recent $1.2 billion in debt relief from the international community, and Haiti's current administration and people, Clinton also said, in a written statement. The possibility of turning the Caribbean into a completely, energy-independent testing ground may also mean jobs in Haiti, Clinton said.

"The stars are aligned," Alonzo Fulgham, acting administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development, told conference attendees that Sunday. "For the first time in history, we have a whole plan to help Haiti. The [U.S.] Administration is deeply committed to Haiti's development. Members of the Diaspora: the time is now. We need your help."

In recognizing the Diaspora's role, Clinton said that a recent meeting with Haitians in New York proved useful and that he plans to establish an advisory committee made up of Haitian Americans. He also said, on the home front in the U.S., Haitians' efforts at gaining Temporary Protected Status for their brethren has reached the White House, which is sympathetic to the migrants' plight and has to be trusted to "make the right decision."

"Haiti needs you now, and Haiti can take your help now, and do something with it," Clinton said. "So let's make this a success."

Although clear examples of promising undertakings emerged during the conference, the event failed to produce the collective plan of action organizers had hoped for in the agenda and format of the meeting. Still, participants said, they were inspired to continue working in their sectors – in education, healthcare, business development, engaging youth, building institutions, the environment, microfinance, and other areas.

"President Clinton has put a lot on the table for us," said Dumas Simeus, a Texas-based processed food mogul who ran for president of Haiti several years ago. "At the end of the day, it's up to us to take the ball and run with it."

Signs of individuals and partnerships doing their part in Haiti and from abroad abounded at the conference.

Jeff Lozama, of Miami, said he has incorporated a branch of his building materials business in Haiti this summer. After about 19 years of doing business in other parts of the Caribbean, Lozama hopes to open the Petion-Ville office of CMS-Haiti in September.

"I'm jumping in with both feet," Lozama said. "The law is there. Coming from the States, where things are available to you, you can open a corporation overnight. But Haiti is different. I knew that going in."

Lozama said he was encouraged by USAID and Sogebank's joint investment funding program, Haiti Diaspora Marketplace. The program has $2 million available for small and medium enterprises investing in the country of 9 million – the majority of which are hungry for jobs and food alike.

The Haitian government has also established the Center for the Facilitation of Investment. The organization's website, www.cfihaiti.net, contains information on procedures for opening and maintaining investments in Haiti.

Those who have been to Haiti recently said they feel more secure than before about going there and bringing in their money. Security – or lack of it – in Haiti has been a concern for potential investors and travelers who feared they might fall victim to the seemingly arbitrary kidnappings, killings, damage to property that Haiti endured after Aristide.

Prime Minister Pierre-Louis and others said more police officers are on the ground in Port-au-Prince have made the city safer, and gangs that once claimed neighborhoods have been dismantled in the last couple years.

The Haitian government's five-year plan for increasing security has resulted in 9,000 police officers on the ground, said Eucher-Luc Joseph, the deputy Minister of Justice in charge of security. Another 2,000 officers are to be added by 2011, he said.

"People who have traveled to Haiti can see it," Joseph said in Creole, during the panel, titled Improving Human Rights and Foreign Relations. "Everywhere you go across the country, you see officers."

Anyone can enter and leave Cite Soleil, he added, referring to the long-impenetrable bastion of gangs after former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's 2004 ouster.

Joseph Wilfrid Daleus, a North Miami artist, said he hopes something concrete comes out of the conference. Although he wants to retire in Haiti, Daleus said, the lack of basic and emergency services keeps him in Florida, where medications, doctors and hospitals are available to respond to his failing health.

"I would love to see that whatever is talked about is executed after the conference," Daleus, 60, said. "With Clinton on the program, and him launching projects and programs, I hope that something will happen. I want to return to my country."

Leslie Voltaire, former minister of Haitians Living Abroad, said the Haitian government is working to build the country and to welcome the Diaspora with open arms. That's why it formed a new taskforce made up of representatives from the ministries of finance, planning, and the Prime Minister's and the President's offices.

Voltaire is to coordinate activities and priorities between that taskforce and projects of the Diaspora – to ensure everyone is on the same page, he said.

"This is a new beginning," Voltaire said. "Everybody could see that the stars are aligned."

Effort applauded, despite glitches

Many Unity Congress participants said they wanted some post-conference follow-up, but the group did not arrive at the resolutions the agenda stated it would adopt at the conclusion of the event. It remains unclear what's to happen, there was no timeline communicated for reaching goals and programs.

Linda Accime, of Massachusetts, said she wished the event was more efficient, allotted more time, and included younger Haitian-American professionals.

Logistically, the rooms were too small for some sessions, participants complained. The discussion, "Harnessing Development Funds in Haiti," was standing-room only, for example. On Friday, the program was two hours behind, because, organizer Dr. Bernier Lauredan said, "The Haitians did not want to get up."

At the panels, time allotted to discuss the topics and arrived at a resolution hardly became available, as presenters tended to go on at length in giving overviews of the topics. At the dual-citizenship panel, lauded as one of the most important topics to be resolved, people trickled out of the late, hour-long session as the six panelists went on-and-on about the history of dual citizenship and its current state in regards to Haiti.

In another instance, the "language issue" came in – where one senator from Haiti complained that Creole was not the official language spoken at the event – and the session ended with emotionally charged statements from various participants.

The organizers did ask participants for their evaluation of the sessions, however, saying they wanted to make next year's a better experience.

Despite the bugs, most participants interviewed said they found the conference empowering.

Yolande Lardcointe Castel, mayor of Lascahobas, said she's happy to know that the Haitian government's ministers all know what's ahead for the country in developing. Her town has also been selected for a pilot permaculture [an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor] project operated by The Haitian League, which organized the event.

But most of all, she's happy to have her view of Haitians abroad changed.

"I never knew they had such a burning desire in their hearts to see it move forward" Castel said. "When I saw them return to town, I thought that they just wanted to spend some time with their immediate family. Now I see that even though they've left the country, Haiti stays in their hearts."