Report of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti (E/2019/80)

The fifteenth report of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti presents findings from visits to Washington, D.C. in April 2019 and to Haiti in May 2019, including a field visit to Ouanaminthe on the Dominican border. It describes a volatile political situation after fuel price protests and the PetroCaribe accountability movement, with a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister Céant and no ratified government as of June 2019. The economic review records per capita gross national income of $1,800, 60 percent of the population below the poverty line, inflation around 15 percent and a fiscal deficit widening to 4.3 percent of GDP, alongside untapped revenue potential and remittances of $2.4 billion. Humanitarian needs doubled, with 2.6 million food insecure, while cholera cases fell sharply. The report emphasizes the La Saline massacre investigations, gang violence and judicial weakness, and, in an annexed letter from the Group's Chair, argues that the special political mission replacing MINUJUSTH in October 2019 needs a broad, well-resourced mandate addressing root causes.