Haiti Country Strategic Plan (2019 - 2023)

CSP approved at EB.A/2019

Revision 01 approved by the CD in December 2019.

Revision 02 approved by the CD in February 2020.

Revision 03 approved by the ED/DG FAO in July 2020.

Revision 05 approved by the CD in September 2020.

Revision 06 approved by the ED-DGFAO in April 2021.

Revision 07 approved by the CD in December 2021.

Revision 08 approved by the EB in December 2022.

Revision 09 approved by the ED in March 2023.

In 2018, with a score of 0.498, Haiti ranked 168th of 189 countries on the Human Development Index. Despite notable improvements in some development indicators between 1990 and 2017, including an increase of nine years in life expectancy at birth, progress has largely stagnated since 2015. Haiti is also among the most unequal countries in the world: when inequalities in education, income and health are taken into account, the adjusted human development index score falls to 0.304.1 Despite a medium score on the Social Institutions and Gender Index,2 indicating that there are few grounds for discrimination in the country’s legal framework, there are still striking gender inequalities in the public and private spheres.

As outlined in the updated national policy and strategy for food sovereignty, food security and nutrition (which constitutes Haiti’s zero hunger strategic review), the rise in food insecurity since 2009 represents a challenge. Haiti’s agricultural output has declined over time and does not meet domestic demand, meaning that the food supply depends on imports. Food security and nutrition are negatively affected by widespread poverty, unsustainable livelihoods, vulnerability to shocks and stressors, elevated food prices driven by high production and import costs, insufficient social programmes and inadequate dietary habits, among other factors.

With Sustainable Development Goal 2 being a critical issue on the public agenda, WFP is well positioned to make a significant contribution to Haiti’s overall development by leveraging its strong operational capacity in humanitarian and development activities, and its technical and policy level partnerships with core ministries. The country strategic plan therefore focuses on six complementary strategic outcomes: delivering direct assistance to crisis-affected and chronically vulnerable populations (strategic outcomes 1 and 2); strengthening smallholders’ access to institutional markets and building their resilience and ability to manage climate related risks (strategic outcomes 3 and 4); and supporting national institutions and partners in their work towards achievement of the goals of the 2030 Agenda, particularly Sustainable Development Goal 2 (strategic outcomes 5 and 6). Gender equality and women’s empowerment are cross-cutting issues throughout the CSP.

Developed through extensive consultations with the Government, partners, civil society and donors, the country strategic plan consolidates and accelerates several strategic shifts initiated in recent years. The first shift will see WFP maximize its support to national agriculture throughout its portfolio, in line with government plans to revitalize the agriculture sector as a means of tackling food insecurity. This will include empowering smallholder farmers, especially women, through training and capacity strengthening (strategic outcome 3), and providing incentives for production through increased purchases of local and national products (strategic outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 5). The second shift, in line with the United Nations’ new way of working, will involve strengthening the humanitarian–development nexus in Haiti, supporting sustainable progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 2 by seeking stronger synergies with long-term joint multisector development interventions; when feasible, emergency assistance will be channelled through shock-responsive social safety nets (strategic outcomes 1, 2 and 5). The third shift will address Haiti’s vulnerability to recurring shocks through investments in adaptation measures, including livelihood and resilience activities, sustainable food systems and enhanced climate risk management strategies to increase the self-reliance of the population while restoring fragile and degraded ecosystems (strategic outcome 4). The fourth shift will be from tackling the immediate effects of mother and child malnutrition to addressing its underlying causes through institutional capacity strengthening, nutrition-sensitive safety nets and communication initiatives for behaviour change (strategic outcomes 2 and 5). The fifth shift, reflecting the increased emphasis on technical assistance in the United Nations development assistance framework, will involve consolidating WFP’s contribution to "upstream" policy, operational and system-level capacity strengthening in order to facilitate future handover of WFP activities to national stakeholders and to ensure the long-term sustainability of national relief and development programmes (strategic outcome 5).

Contributing to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 17, the country strategic plan is aligned with the updated national policy and strategy for food sovereignty, food security and nutrition, the national strategic development plan and the United Nations development assistance framework. With a strong focus on partnerships at the operational and strategic levels, implementation of the plan will enable WFP to help the country address acute and chronic vulnerabilities, build resilience and make lasting progress towards the achievement of zero hunger.