The Biden administration's strategic plan to prevent conflict and promote stability in Haiti in the next ten years affirms that "the United States is committed to helping Haiti become a safer, more stable, and more democratic country." What will the US administration do to achieve this goal, which it has repeatedly stated its keenness to achieve in vain? Will it succeed this time, and believe in its promises, or is it nothing more than hollow humanitarian rhetoric that obscures the real motives of this strategy, as we have already mentioned in previous articles? Will the plan end the fragility of Haiti at this time, and with it the humanitarian crises afflicting the Haitian people, or will it continue for decades to come, unless the leaders of the Haitian people act to address their internal problems with full national will, away from external interference?

The plan acknowledges that despite good intentions and significant investment of resources so far, U.S.-led diplomatic and assistance efforts to help Haiti have not always achieved their goals and have not produced comprehensive and equitable results.

Before reviewing the US administration's plan to address fragility in Haiti in the next ten years, it should be recalled that our approach to the State of Haiti in this context was an attempt to understand the reasons and motives behind choosing Haiti to be at the top of the list of fragile states targeted by the US administration in the next ten years, although it is not the most fragile among fragile states, as mentioned above, and we have explained in the previous article the reasons and motives that are strong justifications for this choice, after we reviewed the law Global fragility and the U.S. strategy for conflict prevention and stabilization, and having defined fragility and fragile states.

In this regard, Haiti is an example of dozens of fragile States that suffer in various fields, in full view of the developed world with its international and local institutions, which always fail to put an end to this fragility, and do nothing more than sow ashes in the eyes by providing some timid financial grants and humanitarian assistance, while at the same time confirming the world's need for new mechanisms capable of addressing fragility and improving the humanitarian situation. What is happening in Haiti is happening daily around us in many countries of the Arab and Islamic world.

Objectives of the Plan

The Strategic Plan for Addressing Fragility in Haiti was developed under the leadership of the U.S. Embassy in Haiti with the participation of U.S. stakeholders, and in comprehensive consultation with more than 230 individuals representing the Haitian government, civil society, multilateral and bilateral organizations, the private sector, academia, the Haitian diaspora, experts and practitioners of the plan, in addition to broad policy deliberations among U.S. agencies concerned with developing a long-term strategy on Haiti, based on the vision of the U.S. Global Fragility Act (GFA). This working group will continue to serve as a coordination mechanism during the implementation of the plan. The plan will support and guide all of the U.S. government's diplomatic and foreign assistance strategies for Haiti, including the State Department's strategy and USAID's 2020-2024 Strategic Framework for Haiti.

The United States generally aims to help Haitians and government "provide a shared vision and environment for long-term stability," and this overall goal is to ensure that government institutions become more capable and responsive to Haitians' basic needs. At the same time, Haitians' confidence in public institutions to participate in civil and political processes should be increased.

Based on this, the plan has identified two main objectives that it works to achieve:

  • Objective I: Strengthen responsive and accountable management and security.
  • Second Objective: Supporting successful interactive citizenship.

With a step-by-step approach, prioritizing security and justice sector efforts from the outset given the current volatile context in Haiti.

Western interventions in Haiti in the past decades have compounded the suffering of the Haitian people and caused the loss of tens of thousands of citizens, without those responsible being held accountable.

Confession without accountability

The plan is divided into 3 main phases, as follows:

  • Phase I: Strengthen the partnership between Haitian civil society and the National Police to work together to consolidate citizen security and the rule of law, while ensuring the protection and promotion of human rights and accountability. The first effort will focus on key neighborhoods with high crime and violence, major transportation and economic hubs.
  • The second phase: After successfully achieving security and justice in the first phase, work begins to address the root causes of instability, build on justice sector reform, and address the problems of civic participation and economic opportunities.
  • The third stage: working to expand the state's systems to have a sustainable impact, leading to fundamental institutional changes.

The plan assumes that a step-by-step approach will enable the U.S. government to adapt to changing conditions on the ground and take advantage of opportunities.

The plan acknowledges that, despite the goodwill and significant investment of resources so far, diplomatic, U.S.-led and other international efforts to assist Haiti have not always achieved their goals and have not produced comprehensive and equitable results. The plan also recognizes that lessons learned from previous decades of interventions in Haiti that have increased the suffering of the Haitian people and claimed tens of thousands of lives without holding those responsible to account, must be heeded.

These interventions have become mere archival documents of historical experience and reference information, the countries that carried them out have not been held accountable, no sanctions or compensation have been imposed on them, they have not been accused of terrorism, their leaders have not been prosecuted to hold them accountable and bring them to justice, and they have not been asked to apologize for their crimes and violations, and all this is only because the interventions were carried out by the colonial Western countries that cover themselves under the banner of justice, development and human rights to manage these crimes and violations.

The success of this ambitious and promising plan clashes with the historical experience of the Haitian people, who have suffered at the hands of colonial powers.

Success Commitments and Policies

The US administration's keenness to succeed in its plan and not to repeat the failure suffered by US administrations over the past decades, has clearly defined its commitments and set a set of policies to ensure its implementation. The plan specifically stated that the United States Government was committed to:

  • Apply a phased and targeted approach, taking a long-term holistic view, seizing political will and partnership opportunities.
  • Focus on progress in the programs being implemented, and on forward-thinking that prioritizes sustainable results in priority areas.
  • Explore innovation while scaling success, and identify innovative evidence-based initiatives.
  • Increase internal coordination of the U.S. government, and ensure that its efforts across different departments and agencies are well aligned according to a common strategy.
  • Prioritizing solutions delivered locally, the plan ensures that local partnership and coordination underpin all elements of the strategy, and this will ensure greater sustainability and longer impact of U.S. efforts.
  • Strengthen international coordination among donors to avoid duplication and maximize impact.

    • Success Policies

    To this end, the plan indicated that the U.S. government will adhere to the following policies in its implementation of the plan:

  • Work in innovative evidence- and data-driven ways.
  • Expand planning beyond traditional financing. and work with Haitian government actors wherever possible.
  • Engage reformist-minded leaders at the national and local levels.
  • Work to deepen engagement with Haitian leaders, stakeholders and civil society, including religious groups and NGOs.
  • Deepen engagement with other international donors, Haitian diaspora organizations, and multilateral organizations.
  • Develop a strategic communication plan to ensure that U.S. government-funded efforts are effectively promoted throughout Haiti.

    • However, the plan explicitly recognizes many of the risks that could impede the achievement of the objectives, in particular the risks posed by the overall political and security situation in Haiti. Where programs are less successful, they will curtail, terminate, or change approaches to their implementation, with rigorous monitoring and continuous evaluation of the success of this plan.

    This ambitious and promising plan collides with the historical experience of the Haitian people who have tasted the scourge at the hands of colonial countries, and clashes with the hegemonic policies and strategic interests of the United States and its allies, and collides with the real goals that govern the American position on Haiti, as well as the fluctuations of successive US administrations and the ideologies controlling them, as well as the reality of the current behaviors of the administration of US President Joe Biden in the world, which contradict the ideas, mechanisms and policies of these strategic plans to address Fragility, stabilization and development, which have become elusive to affected States, make the plan to address fragility in Haiti almost impossible.

    (To be continued: Libya et al.)