标签： Haiti

In a landmark step toward breaking decades of relative geopolitical and economic isolation, Haiti formalized its commitment to deeper Caribbean regional integration on September 22, 2026, with the official signing of the Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA) alongside the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The signing ceremony was co-led by Haitian Prime Minister Alix Didier Fils-Aimé and CARICOM Secretary-General Carla Barnett, bringing to fruition months of collaborative negotiations between Haitian authorities and the regional bloc.

For the Haitian government, the agreement is far more than a technical aviation accord—it is a core strategic priority designed to reconnect the country to its regional neighbors. Prime Minister Fils-Aimé emphasized that ending Haiti’s long-standing isolation is critical to unlocking dormant economic potential, creating new small and medium business opportunities, and strengthening people-to-people ties between Haitian communities and populations across the Caribbean. Beyond economic gains, the agreement also enshrines Haiti’s commitment to aligning its aviation regulatory frameworks with global safety and security standards, supported by regional expertise sharing and capacity building.

Through the terms of MASA, Haiti will create a more streamlined regulatory environment to encourage the launch of new direct air routes between the country and other CARICOM member states. This improved connectivity is expected to remove long-standing barriers to the movement of people and commercial goods across the region, delivering tangible boosts to two key sectors of Haiti’s economy: tourism and cross-border trade. Additionally, the agreement is set to increase the competitiveness of Haiti’s aviation sector by creating more operational flexibility and opening opportunities for partnership with regional carriers.

CARICOM officials note that the signing moves the bloc closer to its long-term goal of building a fully integrated, accessible, and economically dynamic Caribbean Single Market and Economy. For Haiti, which occupies a geographically central position in the Caribbean archipelago, enhanced air connectivity unlocks the chance to leverage that strategic location more effectively, enabling the country to contribute fully to regional development initiatives while advancing its own economic recovery and integration goals.

As Haiti moves closer to its long-awaited general elections, the country’s Provisional Electoral Council (CEP) has released a comprehensive progress update confirming that multiple critical pre-election milestones have been successfully reached as of September 21, 2026, putting the electoral process firmly on track.

Voter registration, the foundational step of any democratic election, kicked off in a phased rollout earlier this year. The process launched July 20–21 across nine of Haiti’s ten administrative departments, expanding to the most populous West Department on July 30. Today, registration operations are active across every region of the country, with 1,285 official Registration and Polling Centers (CIVs) open and serving voters nationwide. Five departments — Grand’Anse, South-East, South, Nippes, and North-East — have already surpassed a 95% operational rate for their CIV networks, with 117, 132, 168, 105, and 104 functioning centers respectively. In the West Department, 148 centers remain open daily to process new voter registrations and update electoral roll records.

Two months since the launch of voter registration, more than 628,755 eligible Haitians have been officially added to the national electoral roll. This figure accounts for more than 10% of all potential voters, defined as citizens in possession of a valid national identification card. Regional participation varies, with South-East, Grand’Anse, and Nippes posting the highest registration rates to date: 16%, 15%, and 14.5% of their respective voting-age populations have completed the process.

Beyond voter enrollment, the CEP has wrapped up another pivotal phase of pre-election preparations: the accreditation of political parties and groupings, followed by a public random draw to assign official campaign numbers to all approved entities. To date, 30 authorized political entities — 18 established political parties and 12 ad-hoc political groupings — have successfully submitted their required documentation, including rosters of members, adherents, and supporters, through the CEP’s official candidate registration platform. As of the update cutoff date, the platform has already recorded 7 presidential candidacies, 162 senate candidacies, 419 candidacies for the Chamber of Deputies, 162 for municipal council seats, 180 for CASEC positions, and 89 for ASEC posts. The digital candidate registration and document submission window, which opened August 20, will remain open to applicants until October 9, 2026.

Human resourcing, a often overlooked but critical component of successful election administration, has also advanced substantially. The CEP has already completed recruitment and training for 2,853 Electoral Registry Agents (ADRE) and 4,643 Electoral Security Agents (ASE), who will manage on-the-ground operations on voting day. Separately, on September 17, the electoral body concluded a series of specialized training workshops focused on electoral dispute resolution. These sessions trained more than 1,000 electoral law commissioners and electoral judges across nine departments, ensuring that the legal framework for addressing voting irregularities and candidate challenges is in place ahead of the poll.

The CEP reaffirmed in its statement that it will continue full-scale work to finalize all components of the electoral machinery, keeping the process on schedule for the upcoming elections.

In a landmark step toward more effective development governance, Haiti’s Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation (MPCE) officially kicked off a national portfolio review of all active externally financed development programs and projects for the 2025–2026 fiscal year on September 18, 2026. The launch event brought together senior Haitian government officials, United Nations representatives, international donor bodies, and development partner stakeholders to lay out core priorities for the multi-week review process.

Opening the proceedings, Planning Minister Sandra Paulemon framed the review as far more than a routine administrative exercise: she positioned it as a critical space for cross-stakeholder dialogue, institutional accountability, and evidence-based policy decision-making. Paulemon anchored the review’s approach in three non-negotiable core priorities: national ownership of development agendas, efficient resource utilization focused on tangible outcomes, and mutual accountability between Haitian institutions and international partners.

In a pointed rebuke to historical models of external-led development in Haiti, Paulemon emphasized that the country must take the driver’s seat in shaping its own growth trajectory. “Haiti cannot simply be a site for the execution of a multitude of projects,” she told attendees. “Haiti must be the lead actor in defining, directing, and monitoring and evaluating the interventions that contribute to its development.” The minister also called for far stronger coordination of donor activities across sectors and regions, urging partners to eliminate duplicate programming, leverage complementary strengths, and channel all available resources toward Haiti’s most pressing development priorities. She additionally welcomed the relaunch of the country’s External Aid Management Module, a digital tool designed to streamline aid tracking and coordination.

Fritz Gérald Louis, representing Haiti’s Minister of Economy and Finance, echoed these remarks, stressing that strategic resource management is foundational to unlocking meaningful, sustainable development across the country. He added that closer alignment between national development planning, external resource mobilization, national budget programming, and on-the-ground project execution is essential to improve outcomes for Haitian communities.

MPCE Director General Guy Roméro Latry expanded on the practical purpose of the review, noting that the process serves as a core monitoring and coordination mechanism for all externally backed initiatives. Latry emphasized that national institutions and international partners must align on a shared understanding of project progress, delivered results, and on-the-ground implementation barriers to move forward effectively.

Yvrose Guerrier, Director of the MPCE’s External Cooperation Directorate, delivered a detailed breakdown of the current donor portfolio during her presentation on the review process. As of the review launch, the total value of all active externally funded projects amounts to 364.75 billion Haitian Gourdes, with just 38.74% (141.29 billion Gourdes) disbursed to date. This leaves an outstanding 223.46 billion Gourdes yet to be allocated to implementing activities. The portfolio includes 118 separate financing lines that support 112 distinct development projects across the country. Guerrier explained that the review will systematically assess the technical and financial performance of each project, identify persistent implementation bottlenecks, and evaluate how well each initiative aligns with Haiti’s official national development priorities.

United Nations Resident Coordinator Nicole Boni Kouassi reaffirmed the UN’s support for the review process, underlining the urgent need for coordinated development intervention across Haiti. She noted that the review creates a critical shared platform for Haitian government authorities, technical and financial partners, and implementing agencies to collectively assess progress and address shared challenges.

Annalisa Lombardo, President of the Inter-Organization Liaison Framework (CLIO), also reaffirmed her organization’s long-term commitment to strengthening constructive dialogue between Haitian national institutions and international development partners.

Luca Trinchieri, Head of Cooperation with Haiti for the European Union, delivered remarks via pre-recorded videoconference, reiterating the EU’s ongoing commitment to deepening and improving its development partnership with Haiti.

When the review process concludes, the MPCE aims to produce a clear, data-driven snapshot of implementation status across all externally funded projects, and collaborate with all relevant national institutions and partners to develop concrete, actionable solutions to address the implementation constraints uncovered during the assessment.