June 30 marked a key milestone in international labor engagement with Haiti, as a senior delegation from the International Labour Organization (ILO) kicked off its first official visit to the Caribbean nation. This mission comes after responsibility for ILO programming in Haiti was recently transferred to the organization’s Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, which is headquartered in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Heading the delegation is Joni Musabayana, the director of the Port of Spain-based ILO Caribbean office, joined by Ingerlyn Caines-Francis, a senior programming officer. The visit is not a sudden outreach effort: it is the culmination of months of preparatory work, including remote meetings, targeted consultations, and collaborative planning with Haiti’s tripartite core stakeholders — the national government, representative employers’ organizations, and formal workers’ associations. Together, these parties have already worked to align on shared priority goals for Haiti’s labor sector, making this on-the-ground mission a critical next step in deepening cooperation.
A central focus of the visit will be advancing the development and rollout of the ILO Country Programme for Haiti, covering the 2026–2027 cycle. The launch of on-site work for this framework signals the Caribbean ILO office’s commitment to rapid progress, sustained close coordination with local Haitian partners, and the delivery of tangible technical cooperation support to turn agreed priorities into actionable, on-the-ground results for the country’s labor force and economy.