标签： Haiti

In a landmark step to reinforce Haiti’s public sector technical capabilities and bridge a long-standing gap in talent integration, Minister of Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE) Sandra Paulemon has officially launched a 12-week internship program for 18 final-year students from the Center for Planning Techniques and Applied Economics (CTPEA).

CTPEA, an autonomous academic institution overseen by the MPCE, trains students in three high-demand fields for public service: applied economics, statistics, and development planning. This new internship initiative aligns directly with both the Haitian government’s strategic priorities and the 2016 founding decree that established the MPCE’s mandate to build a skilled, capable public administration.

Speaking at the launch event, Minister Paulemon framed the program as a long-term investment in the next generation of technical leadership for Haiti’s state institutions. By bringing early-career talent directly into ministry operations, the initiative aims to sustainably boost the state’s capacity to design and implement effective development planning. The minister emphasized that the program reflects the administration’s goal of gradually strengthening the MPCE’s workforce with well-trained, qualified professionals, operating fully within established civil service rules and requirements. Ultimately, the effort is part of a broader vision to build a public administration that can deliver rigorous data-driven analysis, model future development scenarios, craft evidence-based public policies, select high-impact public investments, and accurately measure policy outcomes.

Addressing the participating students directly, Minister Paulemon shared four core guiding principles for their internships and future public service careers: unwavering integrity in all professional duties, strict rigor in analytical work and project delivery, consistent humility to support ongoing learning, and a deep-rooted commitment to public service.

Guy Roméro Latry, Director General of the MPCE, noted that this program marks a historic turning point for the institution. Until 2025, he explained, CTPEA graduates had no formal pathway to integration into the MPCE’s workforce. He praised the initiative as a reflection of the dynamic new leadership within the ministry, and highlighted the strengthened collaborative relationship between the MPCE and CTPEA that has made the program possible. With this new partnership, Latry added, CTPEA is poised to reclaim its role as a premier breeding ground for specialized talent and expertise in Haitian development planning.

The 18 participating students, drawn equally from CTPEA’s planning, applied economics, and statistics programs, will complete a structured curriculum covering nine critical thematic areas relevant to public service work. These modules include general public administration orientation, strategic foresight and development planning, poverty reduction and combating social exclusion, spatial planning and subnational development, public investment programming and budgeting, monitoring and evaluation for public projects, development cooperation coordination, NGO activity coordination, and sectoral public policy design alongside Public Investment Program (PIP) planning.

On August 22, 2026, a peaceful demonstration organized by Haitian citizens living in Chile outside their country’s embassy in Santiago escalated into serious violent unrest. Just two days after these regrettable clashes, Haiti’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship (MAEC) announced it had deployed a specialized on-site mission to address longstanding pent-up demand for critical administrative services from the Haitian community based in Chile.

The core mandate of this special deployment is to remove long-standing barriers that have prevented Haitian nationals in Chile from accessing time-sensitive, essential official documents. These high-demand documents include Certificates of Good Conduct, which are required for work, residency, and legal purposes internationally, as well as national identification cards that serve as the primary proof of citizenship for Haitians living abroad.

The mission is staffed by a cross-functional team of experienced personnel: senior officials from the MAEC’s Legal Affairs Directorate and trained representatives from Haiti’s Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ). The team has established close coordination with embassy leadership to streamline application processing, cut wait times, and deliver more accessible services directly to the Haitian diaspora in Chile.

In response to far higher demand for services than initial projections anticipated, MAEC officials have confirmed the mission’s on-site duration will be extended to accommodate as many applicants as possible. All mission personnel have remained fully mobilized to process backlogged applications and meet the ongoing needs of the community.

To prevent overcrowding at the embassy compound, improve the overall applicant experience, and eliminate opportunities for exploitative middlemen to charge excessive fees, MAEC is strongly urging all Haitian citizens seeking services to book a free appointment exclusively through the official online portal hosted on the Haitian Embassy in Chile’s official website. The ministry has stressed that no third-party intermediaries are authorized to assist with appointment booking, and applicants face no additional costs to schedule their visit.

In a formal statement, MAEC reminded all Haitian citizens residing in Chile to only rely on official communications and channels published by the ministry and the embassy for up-to-date, accurate information about service availability, application requirements, and appointment booking.

Acting in line with explicit directives from Haiti’s Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Raina Forbin has publicly reaffirmed the government’s commitment to expanding access to critical services for Haitian citizens living overseas. Forbin emphasized the administration’s goal of delivering accessible, efficient, and locally available consular support by working collaboratively with all relevant Haitian national institutions.

Amid ongoing efforts to align national development with environmental stewardship and social cohesion, Haiti’s Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications (MTPTC) and Ministry of the Environment (MDE) wrapped up a three-day joint field mission in the northern coastal city of Gonaïves in late August 2026, turning to a trusted local institution—the Catholic Church—to drive meaningful, community-rooted change. The mission, led by Public Works Minister Joseph Almathe Pierre-Louis and Environment Minister Valéry Fils-Aimé, concluded with a formal audience with Mgr. Yves-Marie Péan, Bishop of the Diocese of Gonaïves, where government leaders laid out the priorities of Prime Minister Fils-Aimé’s administration and requested the Church’s unique influence to advance key national goals.

During the closed-door meeting, the two cabinet ministers outlined how the administration is working to integrate infrastructure expansion with environmental protection, a critical balance for a city like Gonaïves that has long faced repeated catastrophic flooding driven by unregulated development and poor waste management. The ministers formally requested that the Church leverage its weekly homilies and widespread community reach to spread consistent messages of peace, responsible citizenship, and social cohesion at a time when Haiti continues to grapple with political and social fragmentation. They also highlighted the urgent need for faith leaders to help educate parishioners on two pressing local issues: proactive environmental conservation and the dangers of unauthorized, unplanned construction that erodes natural flood defenses.

A core focus of the discussion centered on addressing Gonaïves’ immediate environmental vulnerabilities. Minister Pierre-Louis, Minister Fils-Aimé, and Bishop Péan collectively prioritized three urgent interventions: implementing sustainable, community-led waste management systems, cracking down on unregulated urban sprawl that encroaches on natural waterways, and clearing blocked flood evacuation canals to cut the city’s high seasonal flood risk. These steps are seen as critical to protecting Gonaïves’ 300,000 residents, who regularly face devastating flood damage during the annual Atlantic hurricane season.

To build long-term environmental awareness, the MDE also shared details of a new initiative aimed at embedding eco-responsible habits from an early age. The ministry is currently launching ecological school clubs in church-run congregational schools across the country, with the goal of educating young Haitians about the importance of protecting local ecosystems and natural resources. The clubs are designed to turn youth into ambassadors for environmental action within their families and neighborhoods, creating a generational shift in how communities approach conservation.

Beyond collaboration with the Church, the inter-ministerial delegation also conducted on-the-ground infrastructure assessments during their time in Gonaïves, widely known as Haiti’s “City of Independence.” The team carried out a full inspection of a 23-kilometer road corridor connecting Gonaïves to the nearby town of Newfoundland, holding discussions with local municipal leaders and resident groups to hear their on-the-ground concerns and priorities for infrastructure improvements in the area.

Officials emphasized that the joint mission reflects a core commitment of the current Haitian government: breaking down silos between infrastructure development and environmental protection to deliver long-lasting, sustainable benefits across the country. By partnering with the Church, a deeply embedded and trusted institution in Haitian society, leaders hope to turn national policy goals into community-wide action that addresses both social and environmental challenges facing the country.

On August 22, 2026, Haiti’s Ministry of Defense advanced work on its high-stakes National Forum focused on shaping a new strategic vision and long-term future for the country’s Armed Forces, known locally as FAd’H. The second day of the gathering centered on targeted, in-depth debates across core priority areas: evolving national security threats, the military’s current operational capacity, shifting regional and global geopolitical dynamics, and pressing gaps in intelligence gathering, weapons infrastructure, and cyber defense capabilities.

Opening the day’s panel discussions, Lieutenant General Derby Guerrier, Commander-in-Chief of the FAd’H, led a conversation centered on the theme “Internal Threats to State Stability: Typology and Nature.” During his address, Guerrier outlined the most pressing structural constraints limiting the armed forces’ effectiveness today, including widespread shortages of essential equipment, underdeveloped military infrastructure, insufficient human capital, and gaps in ongoing specialized training. Despite these significant hurdles, he highlighted that the FAd’H has delivered measurable key achievements even with severely limited resource allocations, while stressing that systemic strengthening and comprehensive rebuilding of operational capacity remain non-negotiable priorities for the institution.

Subsequent presentations dug into broader security contexts and emerging threat vectors. Colonel Antoine Atouriste, whose talk focused on “The Army in the Regional and International Context,” offered a detailed analysis of dominant regional security threats and their direct implications for Haiti’s national defense and domestic stability. For his contribution, independent expert Pierre Antoine Louis turned attention to external threats to Haiti’s state sovereignty, centered specifically on the urgent need to protect and expand the country’s underdefended maritime natural and territorial heritage.

Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Florexil centered his remarks on the interconnected domains of military intelligence and weapons systems, emphasizing that a robust, functional intelligence service is an irreplaceable foundational pillar of effective national defense. Closing out the day’s scheduled addresses, cybersecurity specialist Guy P. Etienne explored the growing risks of cyberattacks and the integration of new defense technologies, stressing that Haiti’s defense institutions must rapidly upgrade their digital resilience to counter rapidly evolving threats in the global cyber domain.

By the end of the day’s proceedings, the series of targeted presentations had fostered a far deeper collective understanding of the multi-layered challenges facing the FAd’H, as well as consensus around the critical reforms and investments needed to build a modern, professional military that is well-resourced and aligned with Haiti’s unique on-the-ground security realities. The National Forum is set to continue its deliberations on Sunday, August 23, 2026, with further discussions expected to outline concrete roadmaps for institutional reform.

A landmark strategic partnership agreement was signed on August 21, 2026 between Haiti’s Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces of Haiti (FAd’H), and the State University of Haiti (UEH), during the opening day of the National Forum on the Vision and Future of the Armed Forces of Haiti. The high-profile opening ceremony was attended by Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, alongside senior representatives from public sector bodies, the FAd’H High Command, the national academic community, civil society organizations, and international diplomatic stakeholders.

This memorandum of understanding (MoU) is designed to boost the academic, scientific, and professional capabilities of all serving FAd’H personnel, and to cultivate long-term collaborative ties between Haiti’s military establishment and its leading academic institution. During his opening remarks at the forum, Defense Minister Mario Andrésol framed the new partnership as a critical catalyst for advancing the long-delayed modernization and professionalization of Haiti’s national armed forces.

Andrésol emphasized that contemporary military training must extend far beyond foundational operational capabilities, arguing that robust knowledge development is the cornerstone of building a fully functional modern army. Addressing junior officers and non-commissioned officers in attendance, he noted, “The Nation entrusts you with its weapons, but the University will equip you with the most powerful tool of all: knowledge.”

UEH Rector Dieuseul Predelus echoed this sentiment, framing the signing ceremony as far more than a bureaucratic agreement. “What we are accomplishing together today, by signing this Framework Partnership Agreement, is an act of faith in Haiti, an act of responsibility toward our people, and an act of clear-sightedness in the face of the challenges of our time,” he said.

Predelus drew on global precedents to contextualize the importance of the new collaboration, noting that the world’s most powerful states consistently invest heavily in university and research infrastructure to reinforce national defense capabilities. “The United States built its scientific and technological hegemony on university campuses intimately linked to its military-industrial complex. In France, the Grandes Écoles were founded on the conviction that the training of intellectual elites is inseparable from the nation’s defense capacity. In Haiti, we must rediscover and honor this fundamental imperative,” he explained.

Since the official remobilization and rebuilding of the Haitian Armed Forces began, the institution has faced persistent gaps in specialized training and skilled personnel. Predelus stressed that the newly reconstituted FAd’H requires leadership trained to meet the most rigorous international academic and scientific standards, with expertise extending far beyond core military tactics. Officers and technicians need proficiency in geopolitics, emerging digital technologies, history, and core natural sciences to meet 21st-century defense challenges, he added.

The newly signed agreement directly addresses these unmet needs. It establishes pathways for FAd’H personnel to complete accredited degree programs and access ongoing continuing education courses, and creates a framework for joint scientific research into pressing national security and defense strategic issues. UEH has committed to developing and delivering all training programs in line with global academic standards, while ensuring curricula are rooted in Haitian national context and tailored to the unique operational missions of the FAd’H.

“By uniting knowledge and defense, the University and the Army, knowledge and security, we are returning to the deepest vision of our founders: that of a free, educated people capable of defending and governing themselves,” Predelus concluded.

In a separate announcement, Defense Minister Andrésol confirmed that the Haitian government will support integrating key conclusions from the national forum into two foundational policy documents: an updated FAd’H institutional doctrine and a new National Defense White Paper. According to Andrésol, these documents will form the backbone of a formal national Strategic Defense Plan, which will be submitted to relevant Haitian state authorities and released publicly to uphold government transparency commitments.