1. Overcoming Haiti’s
Development
challenges
Thierry Mayard Paul
Minister of Interior
Republic of Haiti
Presentation to Students and faculty of Latin America and the Caribbean
Florida International University
February 16, 2012.

2. Introduction
• I want to thank the Latin American and Caribbean Center at
Florida International University and Professor Gamarra’s
students for allowing me to share some thoughts and ideas
about Haiti with you.
• I also bring to you and to the University the warm greetings of
President Martelly. You might be interested to know that his
son is a proud and recent graduate of FIU.
• My objective today, in the short time we have together, is to
tell you a bit about the challenges we face and how the
government in which I am privileged to serve is attempting to
address them.

3. Introduction
• In speaking to your professor, he shared with me that you are
studying South American democracies and that you have spent
considerable time examining how young democracies have
addressed the multiple problems of development and governance.
• As you are all aware the process there was and in some cases
continues to be difficult and complex.
• The challenges they face include overcoming historical legacies,
weak institutional settings, and even vulnerabilities to natural
disasters.
• In your excursion through the region, you are learning the lessons –
both good and bad—of how young democracies addressed these
challenges. We too are doing our own exploration of the region and
learning from our neighbors.

4. Introduction
• We have been very fortunate that current and former heads
of state such as President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, President
Leonel Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, and former
President Bill Clinton among others have generously shared
their insights with us and they have, of course, also been
extraordinarily generous in providing much needed assistance.
• Our exploration of lessons is part of the reason why I am here
with you today. And, I hope that our conversation this
afternoon can yield some insights that I might take back to
Haiti and put into practice. Following my remarks I hope we
can engage in a dialogue that helps me learn additional
lessons that will help us build a stronger and more democratic
Haiti.

5. THE CHALLENGES WE FACE

6. The Challenges We Face
• In Haiti, as you may all know, the challenges are numerous and
profound.
• Perhaps our challenges are even more serious than those of
our South American neighbors. Many of you are aware of our
complex history.
• We were the first nation in this hemisphere to achieve
independence after the United States and today we struggle
with some of the very same complex nation and state building
dilemmas that our forefathers attempted to resolve.

7. The Challenges We Face
• When President Michel Martelly assumed office last spring, he
received a country that had barely begun to address the huge
problems associated with the earthquake.
• He also inherited a political system where the traditional political
parties and politicians were no longer trusted and respected.
• Our people were looking for a new type of political leadership
that would bring forward new ideas and proposals to address the
same unsolved problems that Haiti faced.
• President Martelly offered hope above all. This sense of hope
reflected both a desire for a new type of political leadership and
the fact that our electoral platform offered proposals that made a
majority of Haitians believe that positive change –even amidst the
devastation of the earthquake—was possible.

8. The Challenges We Face
• Our platform offered among other things:
• to accelerate the process of reconstruction and recovery from
the earthquake;
• to decentralize Haiti as a way to strengthen local government and
thus bring decision making closer to the people;
• to create jobs throughout Haiti and not just in the capital city;
• to provide free education to all Haitian children;
• and, to reestablish Haitian sovereignty by assuming the tasks of
public and national security.

9. The Challenges We Face
• Among other important ideas on our platform, these captured
the imagination and the hope of the average Haitian who
voted massively for President Martelly.
• As newcomers to political office we were certain of one thing:
• We had the obligation to deliver on as many of the promises we
had made during the campaign because this was the only way to
restore the credibility of our political institutions and leaders.

10. The Challenges We Face
• Although President Martelly won the second round of the election
by a landslide margin of 68% to 32% and had a huge popular
mandate to govern, he faced an opposition controlled parliament
that refused to elect a Prime Minister and which also blocked
several of our government’s public policy initiatives.
• This was the reality we faced. This could have been also the perfect
excuse to do nothing and to simply let time pass without addressing
the great aspirations of the Haitian people.
• We could have also forgotten about our policy proposals that gave
President Martelly the landslide margin of victory.
• We chose instead to pursue our platform and to deliver on the
promises we made to all Haitians. At the same time we were able to
select a Prime Minister and gradually and significantly improved the
government’s relations with Parliament.

11. OUR AGENDA FOR CHANGE

12. 1. Accelerating the process of
reconstruction after the earthquake
• As you are all aware, the January 12, 2010 earthquake devastated
my country killing hundreds of thousands of my compatriots,
destroying our infrastructure and setting back our development
process.
• At the same time, the earthquake changed us forever and gave us
the opportunity to rebuild a better Haiti, one filled not only with
stronger buildings but with the hope that we will do things better.
• I believe we are doing things better as is evidenced by the large
numbers of people who have been into more permanent homes
in the past few months.
• Twenty five months after the earthquake we have turned the
corner and we can proudly say that the rubble is gone, the tents
are few, and the rebuilding process is visible and palpable.

13. 2. Decentralizing Haiti
• President Martelly’s vision has been to decentralize Haiti as a
way to achieve job creation throughout Haiti. My task as
Minister of Interior over the past six months has been to make
this a reality.
• We are developing a plan to enable Haitians in our 10
departments to exercise their rights citizens and to be able to
more efficiently deliver of state services such as health,
sanitation, education, public safety and disaster preparedness.
• We expect our plan to lay the foundation for the long term
sustainable development of communities throughout Haiti.

14. 3. Building a State and Establishing
National Sovereignty
• Over the course of the past two decades, Haiti has not had a
functioning police and armed force. The earthquake made us realize
that we need to assume the tasks of public safety and national
security, two basic and sovereign functions of any nation state.
• In Haiti, this is a very significant challenge and one that President
Martelly has decided to address because it was one of the most
important demands from Haitian citizens during our campaign.
• These are tasks that we do not take lightly; we are convinced that
we can build a new Haitian security force that is committed to
democratic governance including fundamental respect for human
rights and civilian control.

15. 4. Restoring the International
Credibility of Haiti
• Since President Martelly assumed office in mid 2011, we have
sought to restore the international credibility of Haiti.
• We were fortunate to count on the enormous support of the
international community to help us in the aftermath of the
earthquake.
• To move from recovery to reconstruction, Haiti must be a place that
attracts not just international good will and charity but also serious
foreign investment to help us create jobs, promote long term
growth, and to address the problems of poverty and inequality.
• Our task today is to assure foreign investors that Haiti is “open for
business” and that we have a competent government in place that is
able to provide a safe environment for long term investment.

16. 5. Completing the transition to a
democratic regime
• Our transition to democracy began in the mid 1980s, around
the same time that most of the countries you are studying
decided to abandon military authoritarian regimes and opt for
civilian, democratically elected governments.
• Most of you are aware that our experience over the last three
decades has been filled with serious problems that led even to
two international interventions.
• Far from building democratic institutions, the few we had
faltered and our young democracy and its leaders failed to
build institutions that addressed the ever growing demands of
Haitian citizens.

17. 4. Completing the transition to a
democratic regime
• Your professor has spoken to you about the Democratic
Deficit, the gap between what people want from our
democracy and the ability of our government and its
institutions to deliver on its promises.
• We believe that this is the first time –perhaps in the history of
Haiti– that a government can close this gap and bring long
term democratic governance to our people.
• We will do so only through building institutions that are strong
enough to help us deliver good public policies and basic
services to our citizens.

18. THANK YOU