Overview

The hemisphere's second oldest republic, Haiti continues its difficult transition towards democracy begun in 1986 with the fall of the Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier dictatorship. The transition has been hindered by the highest poverty rates in the hemisphere, limited educational opportunities, corruption and a winner-take-all political culture. In 1990, former priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected to the presidency, removed by a military coup seven months later and reinstated by a U.S. force in 1994. In 1996, Haiti witnessed its first peaceful transfer of power when René Préval assumed the presidency. President Aristide was reelected in 2000 and departed from Haiti in the face of political violence in 2004. A transitional government was named and, with the support of the international community, it conducted presidential and legislative elections in February 2006 that gave former president René Préval another mandate to lead the country. In April 2006, Haitians held second round legislative elections to elect senators and deputies to the parliament. In December 2006, local and municipal elections were conducted, as well as the repeat of some second-round legislative elections to elect the remaining one third of the parliamentary seats in areas where there were disputes during the April elections. These elections provide a new degree of legitimacy to local government offices that had been previously filled by appointment by the executive branch.

NDI Activities

Since 1986, NDI has worked with Haitian political and civic leaders to support democratic practices and institutions.

To respond to the need for a more informed and engaged citizenry, NDI initiated the Civic Forum (CF) program in 1998 and has implemented the CF in the majority of communes in nine of Haiti’s 10 departments. In the first phase of the CF program, community-based Haitian trainers guide citizens through discussions of basic democratic institutions and values using the Institute’s Citizen’s Guide: From Civic Education to Civic Action, a 12-part civic education manual in Haitian Creole. The discussions are structured to enable citizens to practice democratic values, including political tolerance and inclusion, as they learn about the branches of government, the constitution and their rights and responsibilities as citizens. To date, more than 200,000 Haitians have participated.

During the second phase, the majority of groups participating in the CF go on to form community action groups or Initiative Committees (IC’s) To date, approximately 200 IC’s exist and represent coalitions of approximately 20 organizations each across the country. After receiving NDI training in community organizing strategies, teamwork and project management, IC’s identify local priorities and develop projects that respond to those needs. Hundreds of projects have been organized to date, including: construction of health clinics, schools, and roads; reforestation and soil conservation to protect watersheds; the provision of potable water; and the development of self-sustaining kitchen gardens. IC’s implement these projects through in-kind donations of labor and materials or small amounts of funding from citizens, Haitian NGOs and international donors. Unlike other more traditional approaches, the CF provides intensive civic education that leads to civic action and political participation. The program demonstrates that citizen action can lead to concrete improvements in the lives of Haitians including in conflict prone areas such as Bel Air, Carrefour, Cité Soleil and Martissant.

In 2002, NDI developed the Democracy for All program (DFA) using an interactive curriculum based on a successful South African model designed in cooperation with the civic education organization Street Law. NDI provides training to teachers in public and private secondary schools to conduct after-school sessions with students on the Haitian constitution, democratic institutions, human rights, elections, and citizen advocacy among other subjects. By participating in community clean-up day exercises, assisting in voter participation drives, establishing committees to put youth issues on the community agenda, organizing HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns for students, and performing civic education plays for community audiences and broadcast on radio and television, DFA graduates have taken initiatives to strengthen democratic culture and improve life in their communities.

Political parties have been criticized in Haiti as being personality based, corrupt, and out-of-touch with the needs and aspirations of citizens. Since 2002, NDI has worked with parties across the ideological spectrum to help address these internal weaknesses and foster more democratic and decentralized parties through improved internal decision-making, communication skills, and policy development. To date, NDI has trained more than 16,000 party activists from approximately 20 political parties in 10 departments in areas such as democratic institutions and practices, party organizational structures, effective campaigning, ethics, outreach to citizens, and conflict resolution. In addition NDI has also:

• helped sponsor candidate debates for the 2006 municipal and local elections to encourage political parties to present concrete platforms and provide citizens with an opportunity to hold elected leaders accountable. For the 2006 municipal elections, 40 debates were sponsored with candidates from 26 parties. More than 8,000 citizens attended;
• facilitated national party conventions to encourage grassroots input into policy positions and greater internal democracy in selecting leaders;
• encouraged parties to develop local chapters and engage grassroots members through party training and regular internal communications;
• helped to build local party structures and membership bases by training more than 12,000 pollwatchers for the 2006 elections like it did for the 1996 and 2000 elections;
• trained political parties and civic organizations on conflict resolution techniques.

Since the 2006 presidential and legislative elections, NDI is working with parties to play a more constructive role in government and better represent citizens through training on the structures of government, constituent relations, coalition-building, and negotiations. NDI is also helping parties continue to build local organizations, connect with citizens through community forums with deputies and senators, and help build party youth organizations to increase inclusion of this neglected and at-risk population.

Past NDI Programs

NDI has conducted a range of other initiatives to help strengthen democratic institutions, promote reconciliation and increase constructive participation in political life in Haiti including:

• helping to form and train national election observer networks, including 5,000 nonpartisan volunteer election observers for the 2006 elections;
• organizing a high-level, multi-partisan Haitian political delegation to visit South Africa to study the political reconciliation process;
• facilitating agreement on a national ethics guide in partnership with the Journalists Union, the Association of Haitian Journalists, and the Federation of Haitian Press to improve the quality of media coverage;
• organizing Electoral Information Centers around the country for the 1995 and 2000 elections to provide candidates and the election authorities live access to radio stations to share election information and help Haitians make informed choices about candidates;
• observing Haiti’s 1987 elections in conjunction with The Carter Center.

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