(2008-06) Report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti (E/2008/90)

United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) • 2008 • 15 pages

Summary — Fourth ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group report, analyzing follow-up to its 2007 recommendations and the 2008 food and fuel crisis that toppled Haiti's government, with recommendations on aid coordination, institutions and rural development.

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Key Findings

Basic food commodity prices in Haiti rose by up to 65 percent between August 2007 and March 2008, and the April 2008 riots led to the dismissal of the Government and an institutional vacuum that forced the Group to cancel its country visit. Haiti recorded 3.2 percent growth in 2007 and completed its national growth and poverty reduction strategy paper, but three quarters of Haitians lived on less than 2 dollars a day and national agricultural production covered only 43 percent of needs. The international response mobilized some 55 million dollars, with an additional 76.6 million dollars still required, while the HOPE Act had created an estimated 4,000 garment jobs. The Group urged rapid installation of a new government, flexibility in aid delivery, national execution of projects, justice reform and stronger engagement of the private sector and diaspora.

Full Description

This fourth report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti to the Economic and Social Council was prepared without a country visit, cancelled because of the April 2008 political crisis in which food riots led the Senate to dismiss the Government of Prime Minister Alexis. It reviews follow-up to the Group's 2007 recommendations across development planning and aid coordination, institutional capacity building, and levers for economic and social development. The report records the completion of the national growth and poverty reduction strategy paper at the end of 2007, macroeconomic progress with 3.2 percent growth, and the potential of the HOPE and HOPE II trade preference acts, alongside persistent institutional weakness, a structurally deficient justice sector and a Parliament struggling to legislate. A dedicated section analyzes the food crisis: basic food prices rose by up to 65 percent between August 2007 and March 2008, triggering riots, an emergency response plan and large-scale international mobilization. The Group stresses that a new government must be installed quickly and issues twenty recommendations to the Haitian authorities, the UN system and donors.

Topics

Geography

Time Coverage

2007 — 2008-06

Keywords

E/2008/90, ECOSOC, Ad Hoc Advisory Group, food crisis, food riots, poverty reduction strategy, HOPE Act, aid coordination, institutional capacity, justice reform, remittances, rural development, MINUSTAH, series:ecosoc-adhoc-haiti

Entities

United Nations Economic and Social Council, Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti, MINUSTAH, René Préval, Jacques-Édouard Alexis, IMF, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, Organization of American States, FAO, WFP, IFAD, UNDP, Yéle Haiti, Wyclef Jean, Lula da Silva, Caritas Internationalis

Notes

UN document E/2008/90; ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group report series; ayitistats wave B