Report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti (E/2014/95)

The tenth report of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti, based on an April 2014 visit to Washington, D.C. and a May 2014 visit to Haiti, welcomes real economic and social progress that goes well beyond post-earthquake recovery. Growth reached 4.3 percent in 2013, inflation fell from 6.5 to 4.5 percent, extreme poverty dropped from 31 to 24 percent since 2000, school enrolment rose to 88 percent, and infant mortality declined 44 percent since 1990. The Group nonetheless warns that development gains remain fragile: income inequality rose, with a Gini coefficient of 0.66 in 2012, two thirds of the workforce is unemployed or underemployed, and close to 90,000 displaced people remain in camps. It stresses that long-delayed senatorial, municipal and local elections must proceed under the El Rancho accord to preserve donor confidence, reviews the transition planning of MINUSTAH and the case for a Delivering as One approach, and calls for governance reforms and simplified donor procedures to improve aid effectiveness.