As the Caribbean country continues to experience extreme insecurity, Haitian and American peacebuilding professionals highlighted current challenges and next steps.
Haiti needs continued support to help its population through the country’s unfolding humanitarian crisis, said a panel of Haitian and American experts. The U.S. government response, the panel said, has so far been creative but insufficient.
The security situation in Haiti is tense, according to Louis-Henri Mars, the executive director of Lakou Lapè, a peacebuilding organization based in Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince. 80 percent of Port-au-Prince remains controlled by criminal gangs that seized vast swathes of the capital in the power vacuum following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse. According to Mars, Haiti’s National Police and a Multinational Security Mission composed of about 400 Kenyan police officers deployed to Haiti in July lack the means to restore order.
Mars said that a key driver of violence is the lack of a clear pathway out of organized crime for gang members. Without ways for their members to reintegrate into society, he argued, the gangs will continue to violently resist state control and international intervention. He also pointed to Haiti’s porous border with the Dominican Republic, which he said allows weapons to flow into the country. To achieve long-term security, he said, Haiti needs to address the root causes of insecurity and instability. Mars argued that the Multinational Mission can open a window of opportunity for reform, but cannot solve the situation by itself.
Management Systems International (MSI), an international development firm, has been working with USAID to implement its Haiti Citizen Security Program (HCSP). Kalinda Magloire, a peacebuilding professional with MSI, said the HCSP is focused on supporting the national police, ensuring social service delivery to victims of crime, and supporting government bodies playing a role in Haiti’s ongoing transition. Haiti’s acting prime minister Ariel Henry was forced to resign in April after the gangs prevented him from returning to the country after an official visit to Kenya.
Henry was replaced by a nine-member Transitional Presidential Council tasked with returning Haiti to political stability. Magloire said that the Council’s role remained unclear and that it could either devolve into a “bureaucratic nightmare” or work effectively if it appropriately delegated responsibilities among its members. Planned constitutional reforms and elections, she said, could open a window of opportunity to address other necessary topics such as transitional justice and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration of gang members.
In March 2024, the Biden administration put forward 10-year plan to promote stability in Haiti. John Jordan, a Senior Conflict Advisor within USAID’s Center for Conflict and Violence Prevention, praised the administration for recognizing that elections in the country should not be seen as an end goal, but rather a milestone in securing peace in the country. He said that the Global Fragility Act, passed in 2019 to streamline US government efforts to address challenges in conflict-prone states, had allowed for greater cooperation between government agencies and allowed US policymakers to focus on the root causes of conflict.
Haiti’s situation should not be ignored, said Rick Barton, a veteran State Department official and the founding Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO). Barton asked the international community to “not normalize the violence taking place in Haiti – it is horrendous.” He referred to the effects of the country’s institutional collapse as a “humanitarian disaster” and expressed disbelief at the limited attention the situation receives, saying that “somehow, we’ve pushed back these grievous atrocities.”
Barton said that while the US government has been creative in adapting to limited funding, domestic political opposition, and a wariness of getting stuck in a protracted international crisis, the US response remained insufficient. He called for a local focus on addressing violence but admitted that the Haitian police were facing challenges in fighting a conflict of attrition with the gangs, with private security groups often paid more than police officers, and the gangs appealing to Haitian youth lacking economic opportunity.
Barton and Magloire warned the U.S. government to not let previous failed interventions in Haiti discourage attempts at aid. Barton said that “just because we screwed up in the past doesn’t mean we have to do it again,” and Magloire warned that an entirely “Haitian-led” solution remained difficult.
When asked about specific recommendations for the US government, Mars said that Washington should increase cooperation with Haitian authorities to secure the country’s ports and borders and limit the flow of munitions to the gangs. He also encouraged policymakers to plan for a “day after” the conflict in Haiti, to prepare for reconstruction, and to help rebuild Haitian institutions to ensure their continued functioning after the withdrawal of international forces.
Mars also called for a “cathartic deep dialogue between Haitians” to address what he referred to as a deep trauma born from the country’s violent history: “We are a society born from slavery that has never found a doctor.”
The discussion on Haiti’s security challenges and efforts to address them took place on September 11 at George Mason University during PeaceCon 2024 – a conference bringing together policymakers and professionals in the field of peacebuilding.
Pablo Molina Asensi
Pablo Molina Asensi is a Freelancer and Grants Manager for Peace News Network. He earned his M.A. in Global Communication from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs in 2024, concentrating in Conflict and Conflict Resolution. He also graduated from The American University's School of International Service in 2022, with concentrations in Peace, Global Security, and Conflict Resolution in addition to Global Inequality and Development. Pablo is particularly interested in issues of human rights and refugee policy. He has carried out research into the situation of DRC refugees in Uganda and has written extensively about Western Sahara.
