"In 2023, the crises affecting Haiti in the security, judicial, political and humanitarian areas have worsened. The number of murders, kidnappings and sexual violence perpetrated by criminal gangs has increased considerably. The State response was weak to non-existent, and the justice system barely functioned.

More than 40% of Haiti's residents have experienced serious food insecurity. Access to electricity, clean water, sanitation, medical care, and education has been severely limited," says a recent Human Rights Watch report on events in 2023.

According to the World Bank, around 59% of Haiti's population of around 11.5 million lived on less than US$3.65 per day in 2023. Some 5.2 million people were in need of assistance with food and housing, an increase of 20% compared to 2022; of these, 4.9 million people were severely food insecure.

Until the beginning of 2023, only a third of Haitians had access to electricity, but intermittently and at high cost.

Only 55% of Haitian households had access to drinking water and two-thirds of the population had limited or no access to sanitation services, worsening the spread of cholera.

International organizations estimate that 75% of the country's medical facilities have inadequate medical supplies and insufficiently trained staff. Insecurity has triggered an exodus of health providers from Haiti in recent years.

For its part, UNICEF deplores "Nearly half of Haitians aged at least 15 are illiterate; in 2020, only 46% of children completed primary school. The quality and availability of public education is generally low, and 85% of primary schools and even more secondary schools were private in 2020.

High schooling costs, attacks on schools and children on their way to school, as well as a lack of infrastructure and staff have deprived 4.2 million children of their right to education."

HL/ HaitiLibre