On June 30, 2026, Haiti’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor kicked off a landmark hybrid seminar focused on embedding the National Policy for Social Protection and Promotion (PNPPS) into formal national budget structures, hosted at Port-au-Prince’s Karibe Hotel. The gathering brought together a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including senior Haitian government officials, members of the national Sectoral Roundtable, and technical experts from leading regional and global development bodies: the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Bank, UNICEF, and the International Labour Organization.
In his opening address to attendees, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Marc-Elie Nelson framed the budget institutionalization effort as a critical step to supercharge Haiti’s long-term battle against deep-rooted poverty, systemic inequality, and widespread community vulnerability. Nelson highlighted two existing government initiatives that have already laid critical groundwork for national scale-up: the Klere Chimen program and the Multisectoral Emergency Program (PUM), both designed to support social reintegration and stabilize vulnerable populations. These programs, he noted, serve as proven pilot models for a unified national social protection framework, which already relies on the Ministry’s SIMAST digital information system as the country’s official social registry.
Nelson stressed that embedding PNPPS within the government’s 2026–2029 Three-Year Action Plan and aligning the policy with national program budgeting is non-negotiable to secure consistent, long-term funding, streamline cross-agency interventions, and strengthen sector governance. He closed his opening remarks by calling for coordinated action from all public institutions and international technical and financial partners to deliver more equitable, accessible, and sustainable social protection services to all Haitian people.
A core focus of the seminar was the launch of a new 57-page consultancy report, *Analysis and Recommendations for the Budgetary Institutionalization of the National Policy for Social Protection and Promotion in Haiti*, authored by ECLAC external consultant and public finance expert Lordis Bernard. The report outlines the most pressing barriers to sustainable social protection financing in Haiti, analyzes the country’s current socio-economic landscape, existing PNPPS institutional architecture, and the national budget system. It proposes a clear pathway to integrate the social protection policy into the state’s core budget priorities, centered on a program-based budgeting approach, and lays out strategic recommendations to strengthen PNPPS’s long-term viability, governance, and sustainability.
Lucny Cadet, coordinator of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s Studies and Programming Unit (UEP), praised the report’s rigor and framed the current moment as a turning point for Haitian social protection. “The question is no longer whether we should finance social protection,” Cadet explained, “it is how to better plan, target, coordinate, and evaluate these investments to maximize their economic and social impact.” He emphasized that the end goal is a national social protection system that is more integrated, efficient, responsive, and reliably funded, adding: “Social protection should not be seen as an unproductive expense, but as a strategic investment in human capital, social stability, household resilience, and more inclusive growth.”
Erwan Rumen, acting WFP country director for Haiti, echoed this framing, affirming that social protection is an indispensable foundation for long-term national development in the country.
Closing the seminar, Marie Herolle Michel, director general of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, reaffirmed the Ministry’s commitment as the lead sectoral agency to continue deepening collaboration with all national and international stakeholders. The goal, she said, is to build a Haiti with a coherent, integrated, resilient, and adequately funded social protection system, supported by sustainable mechanisms that deliver tangible results for the needs of the Haitian people. Full versions of the report (in French) and Minister Nelson’s opening address are available for public download via HaitiLibre’s document portal.