Haiti Fact Sheet
September 2006
OBJECTIVES
The Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) initiated a program in Haiti in May 2004 in response to the political turmoil surrounding the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. OTI has provided $22.25M since the program's inception and is working through the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The Haiti Transition Initiative (HTI) goal is to support a peaceful transition by helping volatile communities create stability and progress. The program has the following objectives:
- Enhance citizen confidence and participation in a peaceful political transition;
- Empower citizens and the Haitian government to address priority community needs;
- Build cooperative frameworks between citizens and government entities at all levels; and
- Promote peaceful interaction among conflicted populations.
HTI works with community-based groups in targeted, conflict-prone areas to identify small, high impact projects designed to engage a wide cross-section of the community in its stabilization and improvement. HTI acts to bridge the gap between the government and marginalized communities by creating opportunities for dialogue and collaboration around the rehabilitation of small infrastructure and socio-cultural activities, especially for youth. IOM works with the community, helping them to plan the projects, develop partnerships with local officials and government Ministries, contribute workers, security, and oversight, and provide ongoing maintenance and supervision.
ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
Since its inception in May 2004, the OTI program committed over $13M towards over 619 small grants in at-risk communities in Port-au-Prince, Saint-Marc, Petit Goâve, Cap Haïtien, and Les Cayes. This work is already making a difference. OTI activities have succeeded in mobilizing these communities towards positive change, thereby stabilizing these areas by providing short-term employment to several thousand people and alternatives to at-risk youth and former gang members.
The program:
- Empowers and builds cohesion of vulnerable communities to actively participate in positive community change;
- Supports the credibility and capacity of government institutions to respond to community needs;
- Balances cooperation and communication among local leaders and groups, Haitian civil society, and government; and
- Isolates potential spoilers of a peaceful transition by responding to frustrations they could exploit.
With the inauguration of President Rene Preval, OTI supported the new administration in its efforts to quell violence and reestablish hope in the hardest hit communities. The HTI program worked with government officials and community groups in Cite Soleil to implement twenty quick-impact projects worth over $500,000 during the summer and then launched a second phase of the same magnitude in August 2006. These projects, which promote a positive relationship between the Préval government and the local community, focused especially on at-risk youth. Activities included restoring recreation facilities, repaving streets and pedestrian walkways, construction of a pedestrian bridge, canal cleaning, and a centerpiece project that cleaned the main Cite Soleil park in the Boston neighborhood, one of the largest parks in Haiti. OTI transferred management of the program to USAID/Haiti in August 2006. HTI will continue to serve a key role in USAID's strategy to address instability in urban areas in Haiti.
For further information, please contact:
Katherine Donohue, OTI Haiti Program Manager, 202-712-0498, kdonohue@usaid.gov
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