Transcending the Past to Build Haiti’s Future

Summary

• Efforts to build a better Haiti following the catastrophic earthquake of January 2010 are complicated by the challenges of addressing urgent needs, including elections and the cholera outbreak, that run parallel to the rebuilding process and that present an enormous challenge to Haiti’s under-resourced and weakened government.
• Enactment of the Haitian government’s internationally-endorsed and ambitious action recovery plan is hindered by the apparent lack of an over-riding operational framework that will help to ensure not only implementation, but also coherence.
• Donors and other international actors would be wise to embrace Haiti as a country that has highly propitious fundamentals for successful economic growth, and to build on them.
• Without important shifts in political, economic and social paradigms, the prospect for Haiti’s future as a better country that can sustain and expand progress and can improve prospects for all its citizens is clouded.

About this Brief

This Peace Brief is based on a public forum and meeting of USIP’s Haiti Working Group on October 29, 2010. The featured speaker was Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis, former Prime Minster of Haiti (2008-2009). Robert Maguire, Chair of USIP’s Haiti Working Group and Associate Professor of International Affairs at Trinity Washington University, was a discussant. Robert Perito, director of USIP’s Haiti Program, served as moderator.