Four solutions could enable Haiti to emerge from its crisis – but they will take time

By Emmanuel Sael, Jean-François Savard, École nationale d'administration publique (ENAP)

As Canada began airlifting citizens out of Haiti this week, the country is in a complete state of crisis.

An international mission led by Kenya was due to arrive in early 2024, but suspended because of the disastrous situation in the country.

The last straw was the resignation of acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry on March 11, 2024. While his resignation has brought some measure of calm, this could be short-lived unless it is followed up with co-ordinated political solutions.

Many countries are currently supporting the creation of a Transitional Presidential Council in Haiti. The United States has released $133 million in aid, and the United Nations has announced it will create “an air bridge” between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to help deliver humanitarian aid.

Can these actions by the international community put an end to the political and institutional instability in Haiti?

A former civil servant in the Haitian public administration, where I worked for eight years, I am now a researcher and lecturer at the École nationale d'administration publique. My co-author has taught policy design and implementation in Haiti. The analyses and conclusions we present here are drawn from our professional experience and research work.

Haiti in chaos

In July 2018, Haiti was shaken by waves of violence with the population protesting rising fuel prices. These protests served as a precedent for the development of a phenomenon known as “peyi lock”, or lockdown of the country, which has since become recurrent. It brings all priority sectors, such as schools and banks, to a standstill. Prisons have also been taken by storm.

The crisis is a multidimensional one: political, economic, security and humanitarian. According to UNICEF, 80 per cent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, is controlled by criminal gangs, headed by the infamous Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier.

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