For the March 31st international donors’ conference on Haiti’s post-earthquake recovery, Synergy developed the first ever online system for reporting and presenting pledges. This tool enabled donors to submit pledges before the conference through electronic forms, and it also allows them to revisit their forms and update their pledge information.
Synergy also created a user-friendly and visually-captivating live feed that projected pledges in real-time on a large screen at the conference as they were being announced or updated.
This endeavor was groundbreaking in three important ways. First, it was the first time that donors submitted written pledges prior to and during a conference. Second, it was the first time that individual pledges were projected in real-time during a conference. Lastly, for the first time in the history of donors’ conferences, accurate pledge figures were released to the world media and public on the day of the conference.
Leading up to and after the conference, Synergy worked closely with the Pledge Support Group, the UN team created expressly to ensure the accuracy of pledge information. The entirety of pledge data is the Haitian government’s online portal on recovery and development.
“Work intensity peaked during the two weeks before the conference, with constant interaction between UNDP, the OSE and the Synergy team,” said Elizabeth Fong, UNDP’s Senior Advisor on Haiti. “Synergy accommodated all requests received for changes to the modules, however small or large, even two days before the conference day, and the responses were always quick and cordial, regardless of time of day or night. The team never lost sight of the target, which was to deliver a high quality, innovative, visually attractive and user-friendly product. It succeeded in doing so.”
This innovative initiative was led by the UNDP, the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti, the U.S. State Department, and the Government of Haiti.
