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Canada's Commitment
Results
Country Profile
Canada’s Commitment
Haiti has been subject to ongoing political and economic crises for 200 years. Haiti needs immediate support, focusing on security and peacemaking. Canada is coordinating its resources and activities in an integrated approach to address the current situation in Haiti. This strategy aims to strengthen good governance and democracy in Haiti. It also aims to make the country more secure. Finally, it aims to address basic human needs.
In July 2004, Canada pledged to deliver more than $180 million to Haiti over a two-year period. Canada has already disbursed more than $130 million in reconstruction and development efforts, in line with the needs identified by the transition government.
Canada has also provided 100 police officers for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH). Canada recently made an extra effort by sending another 25 Canadian experts on police services. These experts will provide strategic support for the security efforts of United Nations police.
Canada has provided over $700 million in development assistance to Haiti since the cooperation program began in 1968. Haiti is the leading beneficiary of Canada’s development assistance in the Americas.
 Results
Young Haitian students get ready to start
their school day in their new classroom.
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Canada is playing a key role in rebuilding Haiti. Canada’s strategy includes technical assistance and high-level meetings to promote dialogue. Canada has also achieved outstanding results in Haiti’s electric power sector, security, infrastructure, agriculture, microcredit, and collective achievements with other donor countries. These achievements relate to priorities defined by the transition government in the Interim Cooperation Framework.
Country Profile
Haiti is the poorest and least developed country in the western hemisphere. Over 70 percent of Haitians live below the poverty line. 
Mrs. Hyppolite has found
employment thanks to a
road-upgrading project
supported by CIDA.
The workers are constructing
a road ramp.
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Most of Haiti’s 8.3 million people live on less than US$1 a day. Half the population is illiterate. Haiti has the most degraded environment in the Americas. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that Haiti’s forest cover now totals about one percent of its original forest. Deforestation continues to erode Haiti’s scarce resources. Haiti also is home to over 60 percent of all cases of AIDS recorded by the World Health Organization.
Haiti has experienced a persistent period of political instability since the contested legislative and local elections of May 2000. This crisis intensified when an armed uprising led President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to resign and go into exile on February 29, 2004.
The recent political crisis and insecurity are having a disastrous economic impact on Haiti. The consequences of the crisis in Haiti entail dangerous risks. These risks include:
- a massive exodus of people;
- risks relating to public health and regional health, including the risk of HIV/AIDS;
- an increase in crime and regional insecurity; and
- vulnerability and ecological/environmental risks.
The Government of Canada continues to work in close cooperation with the Government of Haiti, MINUSTAH, regional organizations—especially the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)—and the international community in Haiti, to contribute to Haiti’s reconstruction efforts.
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