Development partners back the Haitian government’s push to strengthen its long-term capacity to respond to hunger, poverty and crises

Cap-Haïtien, Haiti, 31 August 2026 – Officials from the Government of Haiti and members of the Global Alliance met last week to finalize plans for a national cash transfer programme that brings together various existing initiatives under a single umbrella, aiming to consolidate support for the country’s vulnerable households.

Haiti faces compounding challenges that have left the country grappling with hunger and poverty for decades. Around 5.8 million Haitians face acute food insecurity and up to 1.5 million people are internally displaced, adding to existing poverty and vulnerability.

“The [Haitian] Government reaffirms its determination to strengthen social protection mechanisms, the coherence of public action and to mobilise the necessary resources for our most vulnerable households and communities,” said Lucny Cadet, Coordinator at the Ministry of Social Assistance and Labour. Mr. Cadet also noted that the immediate challenge is to establish, under the framework of the Global Alliance, a priority programme that can attract financing and move quickly into implementation, while also ensuring that it can be seamlessly embedded in national social protection institutions and systems.

A four-day workshop, organized with support from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the World Food Programme (WFP), focused on strengthening Haiti’s current plan and reinforcing linkages to existing policies and programmes, notably the Politique nationale de protection et de promotion sociales, several cash transfer initiatives by IDB and WFP and the World Bank.

This effort builds on Haiti’s engagement with Global Alliance members, following a multi-partner support package announced at the Alliance’s First Leaders’ Meeting in November 2025. The package included pledges of financial and technical backing from Brazil, India, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Pan American Health Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Food Programme and World Vision Haiti to scale up social protection in the country.

“Haiti can build a national, sustainable social protection system that is rooted in its institutions and progressively financed by the Haitian state itself. At the World Bank, we firmly believe this. And we will remain to support, with the same rigor, the same continuity, and the same respect for national sovereignty, at every stage of this journey,” said Anne-Lucie Lefebvre, World Bank Country Manager for Haiti, which currently funds Klere Chimen – a cash transfer programme led by Haiti’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour reaching 120,000 people.

Haiti’s Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, with the support of the Economic and Social Assistance Fund (FAES), is working to bring coherence to a social protection landscape made up of multiple initiatives and actors pursuing similar goals. With funding from Brazil, IDB and the World Bank emerging from the Alliance process, the Government is mapping ongoing interventions to identify gaps and synergies, and converge them under one national vision.

IDB joins this effort drawing on several cash transfer programmes it has financed through FAES that have cumulatively reached 2 million people, including around 500,000 receiving support today, with a further 715,000 expected by 2028. IDB brings this operational experience, together with lessons from social protection systems across Latin America and the Caribbean to help improve the social protection offer for Haitians.

The workshop produced a new plan for a cash transfer programme to operationalise Haiti’s national policy. With support from Alliance members, the Haitian government aims to cover five of the country’s most vulnerable departments, reaching 100,000 households through a unified system. The plan also outlines how Haiti’s social registry can be strengthened and expanded, a key condition for the programme’s sustainability.

As repeated shocks test national systems in Haiti and other fragile contexts, last week’s developments reflect the kind of country-led coordination that can strengthen delivery during crises and sustain support as the needs of the most vulnerable evolve.