UNITED NATIONS – On the occasion of the opening of the inaugural Global South-South Development Expo and Exhibition of development solutions and the fifth United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation (December 19) C. Knox LaSister, Founder and Managing Director of Smart Inc., a Real Estate Development and Consulting firm based in New Orleans, Louisiana, hosted a private luncheon at United Nations headquarters in New York.

The event was held in honor of Louisiana’s Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu; former Prime Minister of Jamaica, The Honorable P.J. Patterson; the Ambassador to the United Nations from Qatar and President of the UN’s High level Committee for South-South Cooperation, H.E. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser; Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda and Chair of the Group of 77 and China, H.E. John Ashe; Director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, Yiping Zhou; and panelists representing social stock exchanges from across the developing world including India, Brazil, China and South Africa.

“Lt. Governor Landrieu’s participation in this global forum helped to highlight the unexpected commonality between post-Katrina Louisiana’s development issues and solutions with those of other countries around the world,” said Mr. LaSister. “For instance, Smart Inc.’s experiences in the development of affordable housing solutions, especially in environmentally and economically challenged environments such as post-Katrina New Orleans, we believe are transferable and replicable within the South-South communities. Our sponsorship of the luncheon for the kickoff of the fifth UN Day for South-South Cooperation is our effort to recognize and underscore the important work being done by the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation.”
Smart, Inc. specializes in providing residential and commercial property development. It has built a client base that includes the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the U. S. General Services Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), cities in the states of New York, Louisiana and Florida, and over three dozen Housing Agencies around the US and the Caribbean.

Acknowledged for its expertise in affordable housing operations and policy development, Smart, Inc. was engaged by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as the National Program Manager for the Moving to Work Demonstration program designed to provide housing agencies around the US with maximum flexibility to help families become economically self-sufficient, reduce the cost of housing assistance, and increase housing choices for low-income households.

This year, Smart, Inc., launched an effort to perform an assessment of affordable housing development opportunities in Ghana, Kenya, Liberia and South Africa. As part of that effort, Smart, Inc. will be providing evaluations, reviews and assistance in policy review and design; policy and program implementation and reengineering; legislation review and implementation; budget formulation support; program and organizational management; information resources management; financial management; operations analysis; risk analysis; and presentation development.

In addition to housing, the creative economies - businesses focusing on the arts - is one of the areas of development globally sponsored by the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation. The World Cultural Economy Forum (WCEF) held last October in New Orleans that attracted more than 70 countries was the latest offshoot of the Louisiana Cultural Economy Initiative spearheaded by Lt. Governor Landrieu in 2004. Since then, the Lieutenant Governor invited the participation of the Special Unit in the recent WCEF 2008 and, subsequently the Special Unit invited Landrieu to participate in the fifth UN Day for South-South Cooperation. During the EXPO the Landrieu was able to create new partnerships for Louisiana that could lead to innovative and comprehensive solutions for his constituents.

“Given that the Ambassador of Qatar to the United Nations is also the President of the UN’s High level Committee for South-South Cooperation which oversees the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation,” Mr. LaSister continued, “we thought it would be important to highlight the importance of the partnership between Louisiana and Qatar, one of the largest international contributors to post-Katrina Louisiana. It was our way of saying thanks.”