USAID Haiti 2020-2022 Strategic Framework.pdf

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED (SBU)

STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

(SF)

Ph ot o by

D av id R oc hk in d

DECEMBER 23, 2020 – DECEMBER 23, 2022

UNCLASSIFIED

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACRONYM LIST

I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Figure 1. Results Framework

II. COUNTRY CONTEXT

A. Country Roadmap Analysis

III. STRATEGIC APPROACH

Figure 2. Linking Development Objectives and Strategic Axes A. Timeline and Expectations B. Systems Thinking and Analysis C. Financing Self-Reliance D. Rationale for an Integrated Approach E. Redefining Our Relationship F. Private Sector Engagement G. Coordination with Stakeholders and Donor Community H. Trafficking in Persons I. Transboundary Collaboration J. USAID/Haiti’s New Resilience and New Partner Engagement Unit K. Over the Horizon

IV. RESULTS FRAMEWORK NARRATIVE

A. DO1: Haiti is more resilient to shocks and stresses

Shared Objective: Safer and more secure environment for Haitians New Partnership Initiative Private Sector Engagement Redefining our Relationship

B. DO2: More inclusive, locally driven economic growth and social development advanced Shared Objective: Safer and more secure environment for Haitians Shared Objective: Communities more empowered to achieve change Private Sector Engagement Financing Self-Reliance

C. DO3: Governance that is more responsive to citizens’ needs Shared Objective: Safer and more secure environment for Haitians Shared Objective: Communities more empowered to achieve change Redefining our Relationship Financing Self-Reliance

V. SUPPORTING CONTENT

A. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Plan B. Annex

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ACRONYM LIST

AA Acquisition and Assistance BEE Business Enabling Environment CDCS Country Development Cooperation Strategy CLA Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting CSO Civil Society Organization C-TIP Counter-Trafficking in Persons DIS Development Information Solutions DO Development Objective DR Dominican Republic DRM Domestic Resource Mobilization ESS Evaluation and Survey Services FBO Faith-Based Organization FSR Financing Self-Reliance FTA Fiscal Transparency and Accountability FY Fiscal Year GDP Gross Domestic Product GOH Government of Haiti ha Hectare IPC Integrated Phase Classification IR Intermediate Result J2SR Journey to Self-Reliance MEL Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning MG Mission Goal NPI New Partnerships Initiative NRM Natural Resource Management PFM Public Financial Management PMP Performance Management Plan PSE Private Sector Engagement RNPE Unit Resilience and New Partner Engagement Unit SF Strategic Framework TIP Trafficking in Persons USG U.S. Government

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I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Poverty, inequality, and ongoing instability in Haiti, one of the United States’ closest neighbors, directly impact the United States, promoting irregular migration and exacerbating illegal trafficking in persons (TIP), substances, and wildlife. Seeking to redirect Haiti’s development trajectory in alignment with the principles of the Journey to Self-Reliance (J2SR), the USAID/Haiti Strategic Framework (SF) advances the United States’ interests and outlines a path for Haiti to begin to take charge of its own development.

The shared strategic goal of having Haitian citizens more engaged in creating and sustaining a more resilient, prosperous, and democratic future supports broader U.S. Government (USG) objectives related to health and infectious disease control, crime and violence, market-based solutions, and engagement with new and underutilized partners. Inefficiencies in governance in Haiti have exacerbated natural, economic, and human vulnerabilities; repelled investment; and stifled economic growth. This SF thus represents a significant strategic and tactical change, emphasizing a resilience-based approach and refocusing Government of Haiti (GOH) engagement toward the local level. USAID’s work thus seeks to build a Haiti that is more resilient to environmental, political, and economic shocks and stresses (Development Objective [DO]1); advances more inclusive, locally driven economic growth and social development (DO2); and promotes governance that is more responsive to citizens’ needs (DO3) to develop the capacities in people, households, communities, and systems that build inclusive prosperity and create local demand for improved governance.

Country Roadmap metrics place Haiti as the lowest performer in the Latin America and Caribbean region in terms of Capacity and Commitment. Capacity measures highlight low per capita gross domestic product (GDP), deep poverty, and governance systems that limit the provision of quality education, negatively impact child health, and restrict investment in productive capital or technology. Commitment measures indicate severe social group inequality, which erodes democracy; continued natural resource degradation; and a restrictive business and investment environment. The Country Roadmap for Haiti suggests a country caught in a poverty trap, requiring increased human and economic capacities and significant institutional reform to initiate and catalyze movement toward self-reliance.

Developed following consultations with civil society stakeholders, GOH counterparts, the private sector and, U.S. government interagency colleagues and Congressional staff, and several former U.S.

Ambassadors and USAID Mission Directors to Haiti, and with extensive discussion within the Mission, this SF summarizes USAID’s commitment to a different approach to development in Haiti that lays the groundwork for the development of a complete Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS) and generates measurable progress toward self-reliance. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the emphasis on resilience in this SF is especially relevant, as the impacts of economic restrictions, particularly for those in the informal economy, and limitations in the nutritional supply chain, have exacerbated hunger and poverty for a population already experiencing extreme vulnerability. This SF also acknowledges the multifaceted and interconnected nature of challenges in Haiti and takes an integrated approach to development programming, explicitly seeking to leverage efforts across sectors, include the widest possible array of stakeholders, and generate sustainable positive momentum. In the two-year time period of this SF, USAID expects measurable results that indicate an improved ability for Haitians to be active and positive participants in shaping the direction of Haiti’s development path.

Instability in Haiti imposes on all stakeholders a short-term planning horizon, focused on immediate needs without planning for long-term investment or growth. DO1 thus focuses on building resilience in people, households, communities, and systems in response to ongoing shocks and stresses in Haiti.

Interventions in DO1 seek to build the capacity to provide for basic human needs that improve fundamental living conditions and enhance productive human capital, including a healthy environment and functioning ecosystems. Activities at the individual level will help ensure affordable housing, access https://www.usaid.gov/selfreliance https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/country/haiti

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to health care and water and sanitation facilities, and improved quality and continuity of learning that together promote more secure livelihoods. At the community level, activities build the capacities of local stakeholders—communities; private sector; civil society organizations (CSOs), including faith-based organizations (FBOs); as well as local and national government—to jointly identify and prioritize development needs, seek local solutions, and better mobilize resources. System-level activities will enhance the ability of local, municipal, and national government entities to respond and adapt in times of crisis, serve as a social safety net for Haitians, and amplify local successes. DO1 fortifies people, communities, and systems to better face challenges and adopt strategies that advance inclusive and stable growth.

Sustainable and inclusive growth must be based on a country’s human capital, local assets, and comparative advantage. Thus, in conjunction with and building on resilience efforts, under DO2 USAID will advance more inclusive, locally driven economic growth and social development in Haiti. Activities at the individual level will promote a more inclusive and productive workforce by improving workforce readiness and health outcomes; reducing barriers for women, youth, and vulnerable populations to join the workforce; and helping Haitians find stable, diversified, and sustainable livelihoods. Community activities will build capacities for market-driven growth, promoting inclusive economic opportunities that identify local needs and demand, stimulate competitive local supply, and develop local markets. System-level activities will work toward lessening the barriers that impede markets and the business enabling environment (BEE), including increasing access to finance and credit and improving land tenure and property rights.

This SF adopts the perspective that meaningful and lasting institutional reform in Haiti must be demand-driven to create the space for those with the political will to invest in development to overcome institutional inefficiencies and build public trust. The DO3 goal of bolstering governance that is more responsive to citizens’ needs is thus intimately tied to improved resilience and locally driven economic growth, as improved conditions for Haitians and market-based opportunities justify a need for governance that is more effective and responsive and promotes continued competitiveness. DO3 also represents the nexus of the Mission’s redefined relationship with the GOH, explicitly focusing on strengthening local and municipal levels of government that may similarly serve as demand-drivers for improved governance at the national level. Focused on systems, activities in DO3 will help strengthen the capacity to deliver quality and accessible basic public services, promote the implementation of strategies to support transparency and accountability in GOH decision-making processes, and establish a foundation for improved domestic resource mobilization (DRM).

Across the portfolio, the Mission will partner with committed and results-focused partners across Haiti’s rich landscape of development stakeholders to successfully implement this integrated, locally driven strategy. Strengthened private sector engagement (PSE) recognizes the private sector as a key player in resilience, locally driven economic growth, and governance, and the Mission will seek opportunities to leverage private sector resources, co-identify challenges, and co-create solutions. The strategic change in focus toward local resilience, growth, and systems also means a redefined relationship with GOH entities, emphasizing local and municipal entities where measurable changes in capacity can lead to specific examples of commitment that directly benefit Haitians. The local lens also necessitates an expanded focus on partnering with a wide range of new and underutilized partners, such as CSOs, including FBOs, that have existing resources; local networks; and specialized expertise that can help carry forward USAID’s activities in the field. Religious freedom is protected in Haiti, and the 2020 Annual Report from the U.S.

Commission on International Religious Freedom does not identify Haiti as a Country of Particular Concern or as a Special Watch List country. The constitution provides for the free exercise of all religions; however, the Catholic church does receive preferential treatment, and non-Christian groups, particularly Muslim and Voudou, face significant challenges to achieve official recognition or state support for schools.

https://www.uscirf.gov/sites/default/files/USCIRF%202020%20Annual%20Report_Final_42920.pdf

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Implementation of the SF will support women’s economic empowerment, advance religious freedom, and work to incorporate the principles of procurement reform and it will support Haiti as it develops the capacity to lead its own development journey to the point where there is no longer a need for foreign assistance.

Figure 1. Results Framework

II. COUNTRY CONTEXT

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the second-largest recipient of U.S. aid in the region, after Colombia. Haiti is the most vulnerable country in Latin America and the Caribbean to climate change. Sitting in the center of the “hurricane belt,” Haiti has experienced six major storms in the past 30 years, and struggles to manage this pattern of natural disasters, recurrent shocks, and stresses.

Haitians face many challenges to adapt and recover to pre-shock levels of well-being. The GOH’s path to self-reliance has been impeded by its limited ability to provide basic services, which has eroded public trust. The cycle of political instability, natural disasters, and stagnant per capita GDP since 20141 has

1 World Bank. World Development Indicators.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD?locations=HT

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proven particularly harmful to the estimated more than six million Haitians already living below the poverty threshold ($2.41 per day), including over 2.5 million people living below the extreme poverty threshold ($1.12 per day).2

Health and education outcomes continue to be poor, and progress has been limited over the last decade.

Health challenges for preventable diseases worsened after the 2010 cholera epidemic and there has been limited progress in improving health outcomes. Despite the efforts of the Ministry of Education, schools are struggling to equip their students with reading skills that are crucial for their academic and professional success. These consequences are likely to drive a contraction in the country’s human resource base, an increase in the number of citizens living in extreme poverty, and, potentially, rising levels of alienation and civil unrest. Haiti ranks 169 out of 189 countries in the World Bank’s Human Capital Index, and a child born today in Haiti will be only 45 percent as productive as an adult if they enjoyed full education and health.3

Although only 28 percent of total Haitian employment is in agriculture, it has been estimated that two-fifths of the total population is dependent upon it, especially in rural areas.4 Local food production generates less than 19 percent of the national GDP and meets only 45 percent of the country’s food needs.

Given that more than half the food consumed in the country is imported, significant currency fluctuation impacts purchasing power, and disruptions in food imports due to COVID-19 have a disproportionate impact. For example, nearly 80 percent of rice is imported, so disruptions are not just affecting luxury goods, but also basic food security crops.5 Further, gang violence in Haiti impacts road access, limiting the ability of agricultural products to reach markets. According to analysis by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, about 4 million people are in a situation classified as integrated phase classification 3 (IPC 3)6 until February 2021.

The country’s economic growth and social progress are adversely affected by the lack of reliable energy.

Only a third of the population has a grid connection, half of which are thought to be illegal, and service through the grid is unreliable.7 Rural Haiti remains largely unserved, leaving most households without modern energy access. Consequently, forest resources, in the form of fuelwood (rural) and charcoal (urban), are the most important sources of energy in Haiti. Charcoal is used by 90 percent of households in Port-au-Prince and other major cities, and charcoal production is the second largest value chain and employs more than 150,000 people nationwide. It is estimated that more than 1 million metric tons of charcoal are consumed annually in Haiti.8 While the enormous demand for charcoal drives deforestation in Haiti, the situation may not be as grim as has been reported given that studies have indicated that approximately 30 percent of Haiti’s surface is covered with trees.9 The consequences of deforestation are costly to the Haitian economy and amplify the risks of natural disasters to the Haitian people. Destruction

2 World Bank. Haiti Overview. 2020.

3 Ibid.

4 World Bank. Employment in Agriculture (% of total employment) - Haiti. October 2020.

5 United States Department of Agriculture. Haiti’s U.S. Rice Imports. February 2016.

6 IPC 3: At least one in five households face significant food consumption gaps with high or above usual acute malnutrition or is marginally able to meet minimum food needs only with unsustainable coping strategies such as liquidating livelihood assets.

7 CIA Factbook. Haiti. 2020.

8 Tarter, A; K. Kennedy Freeman, C.S. Ward, K. Sander; K. Theus, B. Coello, Y.S. Fawaz, M. Miles, T.T.G.

Ahmed. 2018. Charcoal in Haiti: A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends (English). Washington, D.C.: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti- A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trend 9 Tarter, Andrew. 2016. Haiti is Covered with Trees. http://www.envirosociety.org/2016/05/haiti-is-covered-with-trees/. Accessed on January 21. 2021.

https://www.envirosociety.org/2016/05/haiti-is-covered-with-trees/ https://www.envirosociety.org/2016/05/haiti-is-covered-with-trees/ http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trend http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trend https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS?locations=HT https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/39144/56601_rcs-16a-01.pdf?v=6382 https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/haiti/

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of the country’s forests has resulted in accelerated soil erosion. It is estimated that 20 centimeters of soil covering 2,000 hectares (ha) of arable lands are washed away every year after the removal of the forest cover. These 2,000 ha have an average production potential of $8 million in various agricultural products.

Soil sediments also fill streams and rivers, degrading freshwater and coastal fisheries. In addition, Haiti’s denuded landscapes increase the population’s vulnerability to hurricanes, storm surge, and flooding.

Nearly 60 percent of Haitians live in dense coastal cities, nearby floodplains, and in areas with steep slopes susceptible to landslides.

The GOH launched a Post-COVID Economic Recovery Plan in January 2021 and USAID is analyzing it to determine its alignment with J2SR objectives. In the wake of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, the GOH published the Action Plan for National Recovery and Development of Haiti,10 which outlines priorities in territorial, economic, social, and institutional rebuilding necessary to help Haiti recover and stimulate development. However, the Plan places little emphasis on country ownership and, despite significant funding from the international community, the goals of the Plan remain largely unfulfilled.

A. Country Roadmap Analysis USAID assesses a country’s self-reliance through two lenses: Commitment and Capacity. Using 17 publicly available, third-party metrics, USAID’s Country Roadmaps are the Agency’s standardized analytical tool to objectively measure these two concepts, visualize a country’s position on its J2SR, and assess its relative strengths and challenges.

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 Country Roadmap11 highlights some of Haiti’s most significant development challenges. Low capacity hinders the potential for self-reliance in Haiti, as poverty and per capita GDP measures among the lowest globally drive overall results. A minimal tax system limits the potential to fund public services, resulting in low quality education, poor child health, and limited infrastructure investment. Commitment measures reflect Haiti’s instability and do not create the conditions for improved capacity. High levels of social group inequality skew power dynamics and promote entrenched interests that impose barriers to business and investment, minimize the importance of environmental policy enforcement, and ultimately limit an agile democracy.

At the same time, Roadmap indicators miss some of Haiti’s most significant issues. While the Department of State Travel Advisory12 assigns Haiti a rating of “Level 4: Do not travel to Haiti due to crime, civil unrest, kidnapping, and COVID-19,”13 the Safety and Security indicator rates Haiti substantially above average for lower/middle income countries. The indicator for Civil Society and Media Effectiveness ranks Haiti among the strongest globally, reflecting the proliferation of media outlets and CSOs. However, the small scale and dispersed nature of these organizations constrains their reach and potential impact, and their actual effectiveness is thus limited. The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2019 ranks Haiti 168 out of 180 countries,14 impacting all sectors of political and economic activity and emphasizing the need for systemic, demand-driven reform.

The Country Roadmap guides the direction of the SF and the approaches to address key Roadmap subdimensions. First and foremost, Haitians need to increase their capacity for resilience in the face of

10 http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/hai140761.pdf 11 https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/country/haiti 12 https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html 13 Ibid. Emphasis included in original.

14 https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/haiti http://extwprlegs1.fao.org/docs/pdf/hai140761.pdf https://selfreliance.usaid.gov/country/haiti https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/haiti-travel-advisory.html https://www.transparency.org/en/countries/haiti https://selfreliance.usaid.gov

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ongoing shocks and stressors. This means working at the local level to bolster health and education and address inequality via broad-based and climate-smart economic growth. With fundamental resilience-building capacities, the Haitian people can better deepen local markets, improve local job creation, and generate incentives for increased domestic investment. This locally driven growth stimulates demand for improved governance—quality services, improved transparency, and adherence to rule of law—that reinforces and multiplies local successes. Perhaps most significantly, the Roadmap highlights the importance of an integrated approach that links interventions to leverage and catalyzes impact to result in systemic change.

III. STRATEGIC APPROACH

The traditional approach to development in Haiti has resulted in significant but isolated successes, and this SF presents an opportunity to engage partners across the development landscape in a holistic and systematic approach to accelerate Haiti’s development path. USAID’s Policy Framework clearly articulates that the capacity development of local systems and organizations is fundamental to the J2SR.

This SF takes a ground-up, demand-driven approach built on three strategic axes: People, Communities, and Systems. Investments in People that improve health and education outcomes, promote workplace readiness, and expand inclusive opportunities for women and at-risk youth promote locally driven growth and build a more resilient population. Strengthening Communities means building community health resources, stimulating a culture of learning and protection of natural resources, and developing local markets that attract private sector investment and financing to build resilience and accelerate locally driven, sustainable development. A foundation of more empowered people and communities generates demand for improved Systems of governance. A more capable GOH that is better able to deliver quality public services, transparent and accountable in its decision-making processes, and dedicated to rule of law and human rights, reinforces resilience, catalyzes locally driven growth, and enhances citizen-responsive governance.

Figure 2. Linking Development Objectives and Strategic Axes

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Haiti remains in the nascent phases of its J2SR, and ongoing natural, social, and institutional challenges continue to limit the impact and sustainability of interventions. USAID nonetheless remains committed to pursuing new approaches and adapting its way of doing business to effectively build the capacity of the Haitian people to build resilience, prosperity, and good governance.

A. Timeline and Expectations This SF is designed with the intention of serving as a springboard toward a complete CDCS for Haiti.

However, the conclusions from USAID’s analyses and stakeholder consultations verify that business-as-usual is no longer feasible for Haiti, and this SF represents both a conceptual and operational pivot for USAID. This SF thus outlines a set of ambitious objectives: bolstering resilience, jump-starting locally driven economic growth, and improving citizen-responsive governance to strengthen the ability of Haitians to engage productively to determine a path toward a better future. Further, these objectives will be implemented via an integrated results framework that focuses on local development, increased involvement of community voices and perspectives, and a significantly redefined relationship with the GOH toward working more closely with local and municipal entities.

The SF, however, allows a two-year planning horizon, and full achievement of these objectives will extend beyond the SF’s timeframe. The bold changes in this strategy are intended to turn the ship in a positive direction. Rigorous performance monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) throughout the implementation of this SF will identify successes and necessary course corrections, and the follow-on CDCS will chart the way forward. Indeed, it is worth reiterating that this SF’s goal is to improve the ability of Haitians to be more engaged in creating and sustaining a more resilient, prosperous, and democratic future.

In the two-year timeframe, USAID expects to see the most tangible results at the local level. Integrated approaches that result in improved resilience in people and communities (DO1) and innovative, locally driven opportunities for economic growth (DO2) will yield targeted successes to serve as models for other communities. Interventions with local GOH entities will bring about examples of improved processes and new resources dedicated to development needs.

USAID intends for these successes in resilience, locally driven growth, and local governance to function as effective demand-drivers to catalyze longer-term systemic and transformational change in citizen-responsive governance (DO3) at the national level. Reform in governance takes time to build, and USAID may choose to strategically reserve higher-level objectives in DO3 for a follow-on CDCS. This would allow, during the lifetime of this SF, emphasis on a change in direction for USAID’s work with the GOH, as well as the generation of demand for improved governance based on progress in DO1 and DO2.

Successful implementation of this SF will inform and provide a foundation for the development of CDCS objectives that are more focused on expansion of integrated project implementation and higher-level achievement of J2SR indicators.

B. Systems Thinking and Analysis USAID’s consultations with private sector, civil society, and interagency colleagues confirmed that all of Haiti’s development challenges are linked. Participants emphasized that the development strategy in Haiti must involve all the relevant players, especially Haitians themselves, and that narrow, unlinked projects have little hope of bringing real change. This understanding, combined with analysis of Haiti’s Country Roadmap, has led USAID to adopt a systems thinking (focusing on local systems) and analysis methodology for project planning and design, as well as providing the impetus for an integrated results

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framework. Systems thinking ensures development priorities respond to citizen needs and all parts of society work toward inclusive and sustainable development outcomes, not a set of isolated outputs.

Systems thinking views development challenges in the context of the network of institutions, stakeholders, influences, and incentives within which they occur. System mapping exercises identify critical points and bottlenecks in a system and help focus USAID interventions in areas that can catalyze successes and strengthen locally led sustainable development. In many ways, systems thinking operationalizes Michael Porter’s “cluster theory” for development in Haiti,15 linking social, economic, natural, and institutional systems via a cohesive strategy focused on broad collaboration, locally led job creation, and competitiveness.

USAID will thus undertake a series of system mapping exercises and apply a systems lens to help guide project design and identify cross-sectoral linkages that can leverage results and improve the long-term impacts of interventions. These system mapping exercises will bring together key stakeholders— communities, CSOs and FBOs, the private sector, the diaspora, and local and national government—to share the systems thinking methodology and ensure broad participation. Through systems thinking, USAID will undertake interventions that meet an identified local need and minimize the barriers to success. USAID will collaborate with donors, co-create with partners and under-represented groups, and seek out new digital technologies and trends to achieve system-level outcomes and account for systemic risks, such as the threat of conflict, economic collapse, natural disaster, or environmental stress.

It should be noted that the systems thinking approach is a tool specifically for targeting and focusing interventions, intended to limit and optimize USAID’s effort to help generate long-term change. Systems analysis maps all relevant stakeholders, identifies relationships, and measures influence, highlighting system blockages and the specific ways and places where targeted intervention could catalyze systemic improvements. USAID expects that initial analyses will lead to adjustments to existing activities, potential de-emphasis of lower value activities, and previously unexplored avenues for new activities.

Given the timeframe of this SF, systems analyses may also provide areas of expansion and refocusing to consider in a follow-on CDCS.

C. Financing Self-Reliance In support of longer-term J2SR efforts, USAID has also integrated the Agency’s Financing Self-Reliance Strategy (FSR) in its strategic framework. While Haiti is still in the early stages of its J2SR, this SF emphasizes key steps to help make better use of severely constrained GOH resources and begin to improve the country’s capacity for FSR.

Chief among Haiti’s constraints is limited accountability and oversight of its institutions. USAID’s support will focus primarily on improving fiscal transparency and accountability (FTA) at the local level and public financial management (PFM) at the national level to better allocate public resources and strengthen prospects for increased DRM. To improve conditions for the private sector, interventions will also seek to reduce barriers to business formation and private investment. Taken together, FSR work can reduce investor risk and transaction costs while curbing opportunities for corruption.

15 Porter, Michael. “A Strategy for Haitian Prosperity.” In Keynote Presentation. Paper presented at the Forum on Competitiveness and Investment, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, September 22, 2017.

https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53306 https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=53306

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D. Rationale for an Integrated Approach As a reflection of the complex and interconnected challenges Haiti faces, this SF features an integrated results framework. Stakeholder consultations yielded the consistent feedback that a more integrated, multi-sectoral approach coordinated across the USAID portfolio and with other donors would improve project relevance and contribute to more sustainable outcomes. While the current strategy has registered significant successes, the partially integrated structure has not sufficiently promoted coordinating and leveraging USAID resources for greater impact and has not approached interventions through the J2SR lens.

Instead, this integrated results framework builds on the existing partial integration and creates a flexible and ambitious framework that allows USAID to take a larger, results-oriented view of the development landscape in Haiti and balance the impact of continuing instability. From this perspective, the three main DOs that form the core of this results framework—Resilience, Locally Driven Growth, and Governance—emerge, offering the opportunity for collaborations and innovative partnerships that can have a measurable impact on the lives of Haitians. Success can no longer be assessed by the accumulation of output-level indicators, and USAID must focus on the achievement of harder-to-measure but more meaningful outcome-level results that build the ability of Haitians and their government to begin to take control of their development path. This will include a customized set of key performance indicators, likely a combination of milestones and explicit measures, that track incremental changes in desired aspects of capacity and commitment that advance the J2SR.

USAID is already making strides toward implementing an integrated framework. The 2018–2020 SF for Haiti featured an integrated DO2 focused on advancing economic and food security. Combining BEE efforts with livelihood strengthening and food security activities, the experience of having an integrated DO paved the way for this fully integrated results framework and yielded valuable best practices to replicate and strategies to avoid pitfalls. Over the previous two years, USAID has moved toward establishing management and monitoring approaches that support effective programming in Haiti’s unique context. During the implementation period of this SF, USAID will strengthen integration, benefitting from refined and tested techniques to implement and track programs in a fully integrated fashion.

E. Redefining Our Relationship Instability and other factors in Haiti directly impact Haitian government capacity and commitment. The GOH has unevenly demonstrated its capacity or commitment to deliver citizen-centered, accountable governance and enterprise-driven development. This SF therefore focuses on engaging local government and local actors as an avenue to bolster local capacity and build demand for higher-level commitment for quality services and responsive governance.

Specifically, USAID will focus on local authorities that have demonstrated the political will to work collaboratively with USAID, civil society, and the private sector to promote development in Haiti. At the same time, systems thinking involves capacity and quality improvements in public sector services that require engagement with key GOH ministries and central governing bodies. As service delivery occurs at the local level, these engagements will also focus on improving quality and access for the end user and strengthening local capacities. GOH engagements will also implement risk management techniques to ensure productive and accountable working relationships, including clear objectives and responsibilities, focusing on achievement of results and integration of GOH as one stakeholder among many in systems analyses and system mapping events.

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Local social services rely heavily on central government funding in Haiti; this highlights the importance of continuing to work with central government mechanisms that devolve resources and authorities to the local level while simultaneously backing local government engagement with results that demonstrate resilience and locally led growth. At the same time, capacity-building with local governments will improve strategic planning for impact and management of scarce funds. This also supports the 2010 post-earthquake Action Plan that emphasizes a local approach to regional development, local government partnerships with civil society and the private sector, and the growth of local resources via local taxation to reduce dependence on central government funding.

The redefined relationship with the GOH also offers a further opportunity to engage the donor community to leverage their relationships with the GOH and ensure that foreign assistance aligns with host country priorities. Finally, USAID will seek to do no harm and will be mindful of the intended as well as unintended consequences of our engagement. Key principles will ensure activities do not displace local capacity or disrupt ongoing efforts of local actors, and do not promote donor dependency. Ultimately, USAID seeks a mutually beneficial partnership with the GOH that promotes effective management of its development resources and ownership of its own development.

F. Private Sector Engagement This SF recognizes the private sector as an integral player in Haiti’s development. USAID’s PSE Policy requires intentional pursuit of market-based approaches and investment to accelerate Haiti on its J2SR.

Any strategy to generate locally led, demand-driven development must acknowledge the role of the private sector as the vehicle through which investment, employment, and local growth occur. However, some influential private sector actors in Haiti have also benefited from widespread corruption and have actively used their political influence to perpetuate the status quo. The lens of self-reliance and USAID’s PSE Policy will thus guide the selection of partners and the nature of PSE partnerships, ensuring mutual benefit, genuine commitment, assigned responsibilities, and measurable objectives.

Over the past decade, USAID has successfully engaged the private sector in Haiti and abroad, leveraging private sector resources, expertise, technologies, and capital. Moving forward, USAID expects to accelerate PSE with a particular focus on enhancing self-reliance. This means viewing the private sector as a development partner and actively engaging in co-creation and co-funding to implement activities that further development objectives while recognizing the profit motivations of private sector partners.

Further, in Haiti, the private sector is intimately linked to the diaspora, and stakeholder consultation data suggests that more robust engagement with the diaspora may also be an avenue to promote investment.

USAID/Haiti is creating a Resilience and New Partner Engagement Unit (RNPE Unit), described later in this document, focused on developing new and underutilized partnerships, including the diaspora.

G. Coordination with Stakeholders and Donor Community The level of need in Haiti has created a robust and active donor community composed of bilateral, multilateral, civil society and faith-based, and diaspora organizations. Consistent with USAID’s Acquisition and Assistance (AA) Strategy, New Partnerships Initiative (NPI), J2SR principles, and recent stakeholder consultations, the new framework focuses on partnering with Haitians to improve the conditions that are ultimately required for them to take a more active role in their country’s development.

USAID thus emphasizes the need to work more closely with local levels of government, a wide range of CSOs and FBOs, the private sector, and other stakeholders. USAID coordinates and works closely with other donors operating in the same sectors and geographies, leveraging each other’s comparative https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1865/usaid_psepolicy_final.pdf

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advantage to sustain, improve, and expand results across priority technical areas, and the GOH has similarly committed to collaborative, results-oriented, transparent, and country-owned development.16

USAID is committed to engaging in regular and broad stakeholder consultations throughout the program cycle. Given the complex donor landscape in Haiti and the common challenges all donors face in achieving sustainable results, USAID will continue to use its convening power to advocate for regular information-sharing and support and contribute to platforms that collate data and information on programming, and seek opportunities for both informal and formal partnerships with other donors.

Through these efforts, USAID/Haiti aims to mobilize domestic resources and leverage financial capital invested into mutually beneficial activities, utilize the networks and political capital of other donor agencies that provide direct support to the GOH, and push to identify priority areas of engagement and/or concerns to advocate for reforms within the GOH that could lead to broadly beneficial improvements.

USAID has already identified potential areas for deeper coordination and collaboration across the donor space. For example, in the agriculture/natural resource management (NRM) sector, the Inter-American Development Bank funds a $100 million agriculture and reforestation project in northern Haiti, implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, that overlaps with the $40 million USAID Reforestation Project, also in the north. There are several areas for potential engagement:

improved sharing of lessons learned, coordinated assistance to target communities, joint training of GOH officials, shared or pooled resources, and joint advocacy for improved policy frameworks. Similar opportunities exist in the health and education sectors, but successful donor coordination requires pressure at the national level combined with active seeking of potential donor collaboration opportunities by USAID staff and on-site support in USAID’s target communities. MEL efforts could also benefit from donor collaboration and USAID will explore the feasibility of innovative approaches; for example, joint project monitoring or site visits and the development of CSO/FBO monitoring tools and databases. The integrated results framework also offers innovative possibilities for donor engagement. Rather than focusing coordination exclusively along sector-specific lines, USAID will explore complementary areas for donor coordination, jointly identifying geographic areas of focus and co-designing activities as part of a suite of interventions from USAID and other donors that could improve resilience or local economic development.

H. Trafficking in Persons The 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report17 continues to list Haiti as a Tier 2 country. Haiti is a source, transit, and destination country for TIP both domestically and internationally, but a lack of reliable data obscures the number of trafficking victims in Haiti. The Haitian population faces multiple TIP risk factors, including poverty, illiteracy, history of abuse, and the institutionalization of orphaned children.

Ongoing instability contributes to significant Haitian out-migration, exposing many women and youth to trafficking, and the TIP report identifies 10 countries with a significant number of Haitian TIP victims.18 Child trafficking is a particular concern in Haiti. A 2014 study19 commissioned by UNICEF and a broad array of international and Haitian organizations found that of the 400,000 children serving as domestic workers as part of the Haitian practice of restavek,20 207,000 were under the age of 15, living in

16 https://www.oecd.org/development/effectiveness/busanpartnership.htm 17 https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf 18 Ibid. Countries identified as destination countries for Haitian TIP victims: Bahamas, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname, and Uruguay.

19 Lunde Henrietta, Jing Liu, Jon Pedersen. Child Domestic Workers in Haiti in 2014. UNICEF/Fafo Foundation.

https://www.fafo.no/images/pub/2014/20403-web.pdf 20 Vidal de la Pena, Lucia. Despite Haiti Abolishing Slavery, Why is The Restavek System Still in Place? Master’s Thesis, Columbia University, 2019. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-err8-4b12 https://www.oecd.org/development/effectiveness/busanpartnership.htm https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2020-TIP-Report-Complete-062420-FINAL.pdf https://www.fafo.no/images/pub/2014/20403-web.pdf https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-err8-4b12

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unacceptable conditions, and subjected to physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, without the opportunity to attend school. Human rights practitioners and scholars also estimate that there are 30,000 children living in approximately 760 poorly regulated residential care institutions who are also at risk of being trafficked by the institutions that house them. Complicity by law enforcement solidifies impunity and encourages further TIP activity.

The GOH, through the National Counter-Trafficking Committee and the Institute of Social Welfare and Research and its partners, has taken incremental actions to comprehensively address TIP, allowing Haiti to maintain Tier 2 status. While the GOH has taken measures to begin to address the lack of TIP monitoring and tracking and the lack of awareness of TIP among law enforcement, funding for anti-trafficking efforts is still insufficient, as are procedures for TIP victim identification and efforts to combat the restavek system. The report’s recommendations include intensified training for law enforcement, judicial actions against internal and external traffickers, improved funding to implement the anti-trafficking action plan and victim support services, stronger policy frameworks to prevent labor trafficking, and public education campaigns on children’s rights to freedom and education.

While the effectiveness of Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) efforts depends heavily on host country commitment and prioritization of TIP within the national agenda, USAID’s work will enable the GOH to foster a state-led, interagency system to protect people at risk of trafficking, facilitate access to services for victims, and work toward creating a human rights environment that systematically precludes trafficking from happening.

Recognizing that the inclusion of civil society is essential for the implementation of any viable strategy to combat human trafficking, USAID will work closely with CSOs to inform its activity designs and to partner with qualified entities that will be further buttressed by increased public awareness.

I. Transboundary Collaboration This SF also acknowledges the unique nature of Haiti’s island geography and shared border with the Dominican Republic (DR). Poverty and instability in Haiti create a constant push for out-migration toward the significantly more economically prosperous DR. At the same time, historical tensions between the two countries and social, economic, and institutional discrimination against the Haitian and Haitian-descent population in the DR highlight the challenges and risks of migration for Haitians. Nonetheless, at the macroeconomic level, Haiti and the DR are active trading partners, and both countries have the incentive to promote more competitive and robust trade.

Thus, this SF recognizes that many development challenges and solutions are transboundary in nature, impacting both Haiti and the DR across natural and political boundaries. Where appropriate, the implementation of this SF will seek collaboration with USAID/Dominican Republic on transboundary issues to share data and best practices, co-identify transboundary and local development challenges, and engage private sector and new and underutilized partners with assets and networks in both countries.

Formalizing this mutual understanding, USAID’s Haiti and DR Missions signed a memorandum of understanding on May 26, 2020 signaling their concurrence to engage in transboundary work. The two Missions hold regular technical meetings to discuss transboundary issues and are working to develop joint activities.

J. USAID/Haiti’s New Resilience and New Partner Engagement Unit Solidifying its commitment to the resilience approach as a central theme of the SF, USAID/Haiti is establishing a new RNPE Unit. The RNPE Unit is based on the idea that resilience and eventual self-

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reliance require the active involvement of Haitians, local organizations, and the influential diaspora.

Weak governance structures have failed to supply basic services or ensure a consistent focus on development in Haiti in multiple areas, including but not limited to democratic governance and human rights, education, sustainable development, youth, conflict, poverty reduction, combating HIV/AIDS, and promoting women’s rights and gender equality. However, the lens of J2SR provides an avenue to pursue strategies that generate transformational change over short-term solutions. The RNPE Unit will serve as USAID’s coordinating vehicle to engage with those stakeholders in Haitian society that can complement and multiply the impact of development assistance and domestic resources and we will coordinate our internal programming to align with these principles. Over the lifetime of this SF, the RNPE Unit will serve as the coordinating entity for USAID/Haiti’s partnerships, NPI efforts, and implementation of the AA strategy. As USAID/Haiti transitions into an eventual CDCS, the RNPE Unit will be expected to additionally align directly with DOs, identifying how partnerships will advance objectives across the portfolio.

The RNPE Unit will be responsible for…