OECD Public Governance Reviews: Haiti

Diagnostics & recommendations

The socio-economic challenges confronting the Republic of Haiti are to some extent the result of structural weaknesses in the Haitian governance system, largely inherited from a history punctuated by environmental, economic and political crises, including: administrative and economic centralisation and concentration, the policy capture and political fragmentation. These problems have hindered the implementation of effective and efficient public governance for the benefit of all Haitians and undermined the country’s ability to achieve its ambitious development goals.

Thus, to help Haiti effectively address these challenges, this Review is structured around five key themes of public governance and offers recommendations to help the country achieve its priority reform objectives. Motivated by a strong desire for continuity and consistency with existing initiatives, the OECD is proposing a series of recommendations to the Haitian government in the fields of:

• Whole-of-government coordination,

• Fact and data-driven decision-making,

• Multi-level governance,

• The strategic management of the civil service, and

• Open government.

These themes are in line with Haiti's framework documents, including the 2018-2023 State Modernisation Programme (Programme de Modernisation de l’État 2018-2023 - PME-2023) and Haiti's Strategic Development Plan (Plan Stratégique de Développement d’Haïti - PSDH), and are intended to support their implementation and contribute to the achievement of the government's economic and social development ambitions. Considering and implementing the OECD's recommendations represents a crucial opportunity to consolidate the reforms of the past and launch new initiatives that could help make Haiti an emerging economy by 2030. This report has been produced with the support and financial assistance of the United States Agency for International Development, USAID.

Towards better whole-of-government coordination by strengthening the centre of government

Centres of government are the backbone of public governance systems, particularly in the coordination, decision-making and priority-setting functions. In a governance context punctuated by socio-economic, political, environmental and humanitarian crises, the development of strategic policies and political leadership alongside better coordination of government policies and actions in Haiti is critical to achieving its objectives.

The Haitian government has legally mandated institutions to perform the key functions of the centre of government, notably coordination. The framework established by the decree of 17 May 2005 on the organisation of the central administration of the State, and the establishment in 2006 of certain institutions such as the Office of Management and Human Resources (Office de Management et des ressources humaines - OMRH) demonstrate the desire to modernise public administration and strengthen the coordination capacities of the State. Nevertheless, the legal construct of the centre of government is shaped by an anachronistic legal framework, with gaps and overlapping mandates that in practice impede the design, coordination and implementation of cross-cutting policies. These weaknesses are visible among the institutions of the centre of government and within such specific institutions as the Prime Minister's Office. Clarifying the mandate of the Haitian centre of government and its various players would help to overcome this fragmentation to better respond to multidimensional challenges.

In addition, coordination in Haiti is hampered by inadequate levels of institutional collaboration and inherent weaknesses in the planning system. In particular, many councils or bodies, such as the Directors General Forum, seldom or never meet, and a number of networks of officials useful to participants have been allowed to lapse. Moreover, there is a lack of mechanisms for collaboration and communication between some key institutions, such as OMRH and the Ministry of Finance (Ministère de l’Économie et des Finances – MEF). On one hand, the large number of sectoral and thematic tables has made it possible to address a wide range of public policy issues, but tends to make coordination and decision-making more complex. Finally, the national planning system is characterised by a lack of coherence between sectoral strategic documents and central national strategies, which undermines the coordination of government action.

The Haitian centre of government faces an additional complicating factor in its decision-making. The weight of development support requires an increased level of coordination to share information and ensure that projects advance national strategic priorities, that funding is aligned with national plans and that monitoring and evaluation frameworks can directly link development support to national strategic impact and results.

Summary of recommendations

1. Clarify the mandate of the Haitian centre of government and its various players in order to overcome its fragmentation and better respond to multidimensional challenges.

• Conduct a review of all laws, rules, decrees and regulations governing the organisation and operation of the institutions of the centre of government.

• Implement regular functional reviews of centre of government institutions to strengthen monitoring and evaluation and promote an effective and efficient public sector.

• Formulate a definition which formalises the mandate distinction between line ministries and the coordinating institutions of the centre of government.

• Communicate across government on the coordination role of the centre of government.

• Clarify and strengthen the mandate of the OMRH as a player in public governance reform in Haiti.

2. Strengthen, better define and communicate mechanisms for institutional coordination and collaboration to improve decision-making and the coherence of government action.

• Strengthen the Prime Minister's Office’s and/or the Council of Minister General Secretariat’s strategic role in supporting government policy options’ quality and harmonisation prior to submission to the Council of Ministers and the Council of Government, by reviewing the proposed agenda based on various criteria.

• Define and disseminate "rules of engagement", or a checklist, for collaboration between line ministries and the centre of government in Haiti to improve and sustain collaborative efforts within government.

• Formalise and strengthen the various coordination mechanisms aimed at harmonising overall State policy.

The Official Development Assistance (ODA) architecture in Haiti is complex, not very transparent and difficult to manage, given the increasing number of players, instruments and funding modalities. To overcome these challenges, the government could consider strengthening the coordination and planning capacity of the Haitian State to improve the alignment of ODA with national priorities through the following initiatives:

3. Promote the alignment of Technical and Financial Partners (TFP) actions with national priorities:

• Develop and implement a national programme for international cooperation and management of external assistance in support of the national development strategy or policy.

• Establish a coordinating body between the various institutions that interact with TFPs to address the fragmentation of interlocutors on the Haitian side. The government could also designate a unit as the secretariat of this network or committee, which would serve as the main interface between the Haitian government and the TFPs.

• Strengthen the Directorate for the Coordination of NGO Activities (DCAONG) of the Ministry of Planning and External Cooperation (Ministère de la Planification et de la Coopération Externe - MPCE) to promote greater coherence between donor-funded NGO activities and national priorities, while preserving civic space.

• Define the framework for public-private partnerships in development programmes.

4. Create optimal conditions for increased use of state structures in the context of donor cooperation. Indeed, as this chapter suggests, the current practices of external players often continue to favour non-state structures.

• The centre of government, with the support of TFPs, could strengthen the state’s intrinsic capacities for strategic planning and developmental policy-making.

• Develop increased coordination of monitoring and evaluation tools for TFP activities and national strategic plans.

• Integrate and strengthen feedback mechanisms in the policy-making process at the national level and in the context of collaboration with donors, to ensure that evaluations and findings from monitoring reports are taken into account.

5. Consider extending the implementation period of the State Modernisation Programme 2020-2023 in light of the global Covid-19 pandemic and issues related to political instability.

Making decisions based on relevant facts and data

The Haitian strategic plans, PME-2023 and PSDH, were built on the successes and failures of the previous strategic plans. Thus, many good practices can be seen in the PME-2023: clear public policy objectives that can be measured by indicators, as well as an explicit logic model, allow for clear monitoring. However, the PME-2023 has methodological limitations and lacks coherence with other planning instruments that could hamper the generation of evidence. This could limit their effectiveness as strategic planning instruments.

In terms of public financial management, the ambitions of the Haitian government and administration are enshrined in the Public Financial Reform Strategy and the Law of 4 May 2016. Over the past twenty years, significant progress has been made in establishing a solid budgetary base. However, challenges remain in putting the fundamentals in place, which need to be well anchored before more ambitious reforms can be considered. Nevertheless, some reforms can be implemented in parallel to move towards multi-annual and performance-based budgeting. These reforms focus on the development of a medium-term budgetary framework and the budget preparation phase.

In the area of monitoring and evaluation of public policies, it is essential to emphasise that the main challenge is to clarify the institutional framework of these two practices. The current system remains fragmented. There is no governmental framework for the practice of evaluation. There is also no explicit definition of evaluation that is shared by all players. A framework to structure and frame monitoring and evaluation practices is needed to promote the production and use of evidence.

Summary of recommendations

1. The strategic planning framework

The Haitian government would benefit from revising the 2018-2023 State Modernisation Programme to improve its internal structure and coherence with other planning instruments such as the budget and the PSDH. This revision could help to:

• Facilitate monitoring and a fortiori the implementation of the PME-2023 by defining indicators to measure the "intermediate" objectives of the PME-2023 and by supplementing all PME-2023indicators with elements for their proper interpretation.

• Strengthen and clarify the articulation of the PME-2023 and the PSDH.

• Operationalise the PME-2023 by implementing the ministerial action plans presented at the final seminar of the PME-2023 Phase II Operationalisation Mission held on 23 March 2021 and ensuring that these action plans clarify how the budgetary programmes and investments defined by the government will be used to achieve the PME-2023’s objectives.

2. The budget as a tool for implementing strategic objectives

In the interests of better aligning the budgetary cycle with Haitian policy objectives:

• The preparation of the medium-term budgetary framework can be strengthened by carrying out macroeconomic and macro-budgetary forecasts prior to the formulation of the budget, and by strengthening the capacities of the study and programming Units.

• The budget preparation phase can be improved by breaking down the budget allocations of the management entities by sector, giving the management entities sufficient time to prepare their expenditure proposals, and by strengthening coordination and communication between MPCE and the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF).

However, the fundamentals of public finance must not be forgotten, as they form the basis of a budgetary architecture capable of supporting multi-annual and programmatic budgeting. Thus, it is crucial to:

• Pursue the consolidation of a single treasury account in order to minimise the number of entities operating outside the budgetary process.

• Make the budgetary process more transparent.

• Enable Parliament to play a more effective role in approving and monitoring the budget.

3. Monitoring and evaluation of public policies

The Haitian government would benefit from establishing a solid institutional framework for monitoring and evaluating public policies. For this purpose, it should consider:

• Adopting a clear and comprehensive definition of monitoring and evaluation within a formal framework, clearly distinguishing between monitoring and evaluation, clearly specifying the policies covered by these definitions and incorporating these definitions into a formal framework, whether statutory or not.

• Clarifying and completing the government-wide institutional framework for monitoring and evaluating public policies.

• Developing the evaluation function of the centre of government by giving a centre of government institution an explicit mandate to require and coordinate evaluations by line ministries and to promote the use of evaluations at the strategic level.

• Rationalising and clarifying the institutional framework for monitoring in order to specify the mandates of the various players involved in monitoring and their articulation within the institutional framework for monitoring priority policies.

• Organising a single performance dialogue between the centre of government and the line ministries.

• Communicating on the monitoring of priority policies.

Adopting a coherent and strategic approach to local development through more effective decentralisation and deconcentration and better multi-level governance

To address wide socio-economic disparities, the government promulgated in its 1987 Constitution the principles of decentralisation, which are based on three distinct levels of local government (departments, municipalities and municipal sections), with the aim of structuring new administrative, economic, social and political relations. Nevertheless, a number of challenges in multi-level governance are preventing the proper implementation of decentralisation and deconcentration objectives: the inadequacy of the legislative framework for local government, difficulties in making it operational, the lack of consensus and a clear definition of their roles, and the resulting lack of capacity within local government.

In order to promote and improve the effectiveness of decentralisation and deconcentration, within the context of sound public governance, it is essential to create a strong and operational strategic governance framework. This must be supported by planning instruments and underpinned by coordination mechanisms between the various levels of government and an effective system of performance monitoring and evaluation. In this regard, one of the main challenges of multi-level governance that the Haitian government itself has highlighted is its relative inability to translate national strategic decisions into specific policies at the territorial level. Indeed, a range of institutions at the central level are directly and indirectly involved in the management of local authorities in Haiti. The institutional landscape in this area is fragmented, especially through the fragmentation of the political and legal decision-making bodies that govern the management of the local authorities.

At the local government level, it is also necessary to strengthen territorial coordination structures and to implement the national deconcentration policy (Politique Nationale de Déconcentration - PND). The aim of the PND is to gradually change centralised working habits, to involve decentralised players more in decision-making and to bring the administration closer to the people. It could thus guarantee a better distribution of public services throughout the country and thus the balanced development of the country.

Mandate overlaps and difficulties in making the legal framework operational, poor coordination between levels of government and mismatches between local government resources and their legal mandates contribute to this situation.

Summary of recommendations

1. Clarify the current legal framework for decentralisation and deconcentration through the following initiatives

• Conduct a thorough review of the legal and regulatory framework of all laws, regulations and decrees adopted to implement decentralisation and deconcentration.

• Establish and institutionalise the use of functional reviews to map the responsibilities, programmes and mandates of the central institutions with regard to decentralisation and deconcentration.

• Clarify the attributions of the different levels of government (national, departmental, municipal and municipal section) to support the proper implementation and functioning of decentralisation.

• Enable better multi-level governance by strengthening horizontal coordination mechanisms at the local and national levels, integrated into the decision-making process of the national government through increased coordination between levels of government.

2. Strengthen territorial coordination structures and implement the national deconcentration policy (PND)

• Strengthen the operational dimension of the departmental technical council, delegations and vice-delegations order to implement the PND in a coherent and coordinated manner with local departmental and municipal bodies.

• Decentralise anti-corruption mechanisms and entities.

• Strengthen the security apparatus at the local community level.

3. Implement a number of initiatives to clarify and harmonise the current territorial and administrative division. The government could take the following actions:

• Develop and communicate formal and objective criteria for territorial division.

• Disseminate the results of delineation/demarcation exercises.

• Identify and highlight the social and economic functional territorial areas throughout the country.

• Formalise coordination mechanisms between local authorities, including associations of elected officials.

4. Harmonise the responsibilities of local authorities with their human and financial resources:

• Improve the capacity of municipalities to collect taxes and the current transfer system in order to reduce inequalities in services in the country and promote transparency in the spending of public funds and their impact on the welfare of citizens.

• Improve human resource management in local and regional authorities.

5. Establish and strengthen strategic planning instruments to raise the effectiveness and efficiency of multi-level governance in Haiti.

• Support the preparation and implementation of municipal development plans and ensure their consistency with national strategies.

• Establish a performance monitoring system for decentralisation and territorial development policies to increase performance and clarity of results for citizens.

Promoting strategic public service management to meet the needs of citizens

The development of a competent civil service is an essential pillar of effective governance responsive to the needs of citizens. Building such a civil service requires laws, enforcement processes and structures to identify, attract, and develop the skills deemed necessary. This requires three elements around which efforts must be concentrated: a competent and effective senior civil service, the strengthening of the notion of merit throughout career management and clearly defined institutional responsibilities for each civil service actor.

The State Modernisation Plan 2018-2023, in some of its working areas, emphasises the importance of these three aspects to modernise the Haitian state and better meet the expectations of citizens. These priorities resonate strongly with the OECD Council Recommendation on Leadership and Capacity in the Public Service. Nevertheless, the Haitian public administration faces many challenges, the resolution of which will determine the success of the implementation of the PME-2023.

The professionalisation of the senior civil service appears to be a first step in the modernisation of the civil service. By the nature of their role, between the design and implementation of public policies, the major Haitian bureaucrats are driving forces in the implementation of the PME-2023. Indeed, PME-2023 can only be achieved if the agents of change, i.e., the managers, act as convinced defenders and advocates of the principles of good human resources management. This requires greater accountability in the appointment process for senior bureaucrats and specialised management of their careers.

This career management must not only apply to senior bureaucrats, but must also be extended to all civil servants. This must be done by strengthening competency management. From identification to utilisation, attraction and development, talent management is a practical application of the concept of merit, ensuring that each job meets the expectations of potential talent and the needs of the administration. Broadening the recruitment process to include candidates from diverse backgrounds is a major challenge in Haiti. Communication strategies need to address more diverse audiences, focusing in particular on youth and reflecting the place of the Creole language in Haiti.

Finally, the PME-2023 needs the stakeholders supporting it to have the necessary tools to assume their institutional responsibilities. Indeed, the OMRH does not have the strategic oversight that the Superior Council of Public Administration and the Civil Service (CSAFP) should in theory provide. HRDs are limited in their functions by their isolation and the lack of protection of their independence and neutrality. The clear definition of institutional responsibilities will certainly be a central issue in the forthcoming establishment of the Haitian territorial civil service.

The recommendations relating to these three themes are based on the PME-2023, the OECD Council Recommendation on Public Service Leadership and Capability and feedback from many OECD countries. They are intended to highlight some of the pathways which must be taken for the professionalisation of the Haitian public service, and thus for the successful implementation of the PME-2023.

Summary of recommendations

1. Support leaders

• Put competencies at the heart of the appointment process for senior bureaucrats.

• Develop capacity within OMRH and human resources directorates to implement and monitor the laws on the appointment of senior bureaucrats.

• Enable the emergence of proactive management of the senior public service, with distinct practices reflecting the special position of senior bureaucrats.

• Raise awareness of the importance of the role of the senior public service in workforce management and forecasting.

2. Strengthen merit in recruitment and career management

• Centralise and make accessible to the greatest possible number of people the various public sector vacancies in Haiti on a dedicated portal.

• Create, under the supervision of the OMRH, an interdepartmental reference system of competencies to be used job by job, to define in a homogeneous way the different competences common to the jobs of the civil service.

• Strengthen the introduction of competitions for vacant posts with selection criteria available to all and evaluated on clearly defined principles.

• Develop standardised, regular and mandatory evaluation of public servants, based on the mastery and reinforcement of competencies, as well as on the achievement of specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic and time-bound objectives.

• Implement training courses at the central level, with a focus on competencies previously defined jointly by the ministries and the OMRH.

• Clarify career mobility opportunities within the public service.

• Ensure good quality jobs for young civil servants, so that Haitian youth are optimally represented in the development of public policies.

3. Clarify responsibilities and facilitate cooperation in personnel management

• Rethink the strategic oversight of the OMRH.

• Develop the ecosystem of human resources departments (HRDs) and create an interdepartmental human resources network that brings to the OMRH the reality that the HRDs experience on a daily basis.

• Strengthen the independence and neutrality of the HRDs by organising and protecting their careers, as has been done for public accountants.

Promoting more open, transparent and inclusive government to ensure that public policy reflects the needs of the population

Political, social and economic instability constrains the very possibility of establishing a culture of transparency, accountability, integrity and participation in the country’s public life, in other words open government. Institutional strengthening and effective checks and balances are preconditions for any open government reform. The latter has a key role to play in defining and implementing a statutory and regulatory framework to protect civic space and restore stakeholder confidence, which are essential conditions for their collaboration and participation in public decision-making. A supportive framework is all the more crucial as stakeholders themselves face many challenges in the current framework.

Political support for the principles of open government at all levels of governance must be accompanied by a clear commitment at the highest level of government to support the successful implementation of the initiatives promoted. Such leadership is needed to create and embed a change in the culture of governance towards the effective promotion of the principles of transparency, accountability, integrity and participation.

However, it is still difficult to obtain government data and documentation on public actions, procedures and services at all levels. In addition, the use of consultation initiatives and citizen participation mechanisms remains limited at this stage, offering little opportunity for real collaboration between government and civil society. Similarly, public communication management is not yet sufficiently strategic and equipped to contribute fully to the government's public policy objectives and to the more specific reforms aimed at promoting the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and participation of open government. A gradual and sustained deepening of initial efforts and an increase in the resources allocated to their implementation, both in the short and long term, will be essential to its full deployment.

Summary of recommendations

1. Establish an enabling environment for open government reforms

• Improve understanding of the principles of open government by conducting awareness campaigns that highlight the benefits they can bring to a wide variety of stakeholders representative of society, including groups which are most affected, vulnerable, under-represented or marginalised.

• Ensure that the statutory and judicial framework of civil rights and freedoms is guaranteed and respected in order to promote and protect the country's civic space.

2. Establish a governance framework conducive to open government reforms

• Consolidate a supportive policy framework for open government principles through specific initiatives and political commitment to these principles and initiatives.

• Develop a strong institutional framework that facilitates coordination and collaboration with stakeholders.

3. Consolidate participation mechanisms with stakeholders

• Adopt a law on access to information in line with international best practice, to structure the information system and thereby promote transparency and accountability by reducing the culture of secrecy in Haiti. It will be important for the government to ensure that the development process is communicated in both Creole and French through various means, and that the law and its provisions are also available in both languages.

• Increase proactive disclosure and awareness initiatives within all departments.

• Further encourage citizen consultation initiatives. A special effort must be made to reach the most affected, vulnerable, underrepresented or marginalised groups in society.

• Establish structured mechanisms for participation that promote engagement in public life.

4. Ensure strategic governance of public communication

• Explicitly define, in strategic documents specific to public communication, its objectives, messages, channels, media, means and deadlines, taking into account the linguistic (e.g., French or Creole) and socio-demographic characteristics of Haitian audiences.

5. Consolidate functions and skills for strategic and effective public communication

• Identify and develop the skills of public communicators to meet the needs of Haitian administrations and support professional and effective public communication.

• Develop a "communicator's manual" or "public communication guide", and guidelines or practical guides to support personnel in the effective and strategic implementation of their missions.

• Strengthen and professionalise initiatives in the use of all communication tools, including digital tools.

6. Institutionalise the strategic use of public communication to foster dialogue and strengthen citizen participation in public life

• Utilise public communication as a lever to strengthen citizen participation. These citizen exchanges and dialogues must be conducted in French as well as in Creole, and through various channels to strengthen access to information and promote the participation of all in Haitian public life.

• Promote and encourage citizen engagement through online interactions through the revitalisation of official websites and social networks of Haitian ministries and administrations.

• Develop analyses of the audience and the uses, behaviours and perceptions of citizens online and on social networks.

• Strengthen digital skills and the means to implement and monitor them.