Democracy and the climate are in danger

On 17 November 2022, the OECD’s Global Forum focused on the importance of protecting civic space and improving citizen representation within democratic decision-making bodies. The OECD is worried about the rise of autocratic and authoritarian regimes and believes that this is being caused by: corruption, the lack of representativeness of politicians, the influence of lobbies over public policies, disinformation, the lack of opportunities for citizens to express themselves, and also lack of civic education.

Since the assassination of Jovenel Moîse on 7 July 2021, a de facto government has been running Haiti with the complicity of the international community, despite the disapproval of the opposition and a wide range of civil society organisations. Ariel Henry, the de facto Prime Minister, has been unable to stop gang violence or reduce corruption. According to the United Nations Haiti Office, there were 2183 murders in 2022 and the situation continued to deteriorate in 2023 as 531 people were killed between 1 January and 15 March, without forgetting the 300 people injured and the 277 people kidnapped. The Haitian population is therefore living in terror on a day-to-day basis, while the international community, which has chosen its side, deplores, condemns and expresses concern about what is happening, sometimes ‘firmly’ but without any great consistency.

The legislative elections that were planned for 2019 did not take place. The Parliament has not been operational since 13 January 2020, and there have not been any legitimate elected representatives since 7 February 2023. The prospect of elections is becoming less likely, particularly since the conditions for ensuring that a ballot will be credible, transparent and democratic are not in place.

For all these reasons, Haitian politics is going through a major crisis. The political class, which is marred by corruption and impunity, needs to be renewed. As such, we can say that Haiti is in a state of anomie: a country where there are no functioning institutions, and where the Haitian people are left to fend for themselves.

In addition to this chaotic political context, Haiti was ranked among the three countries most affected by climate change for the period 2000-2019 in the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index¹. On the other hand, it was ranked 173^rd on the Environmental Performance Index². 96% of the Haitian population is exposed to natural disasters, and, according to a December 2021 report by WFP³, climate models show that Haiti’s climate is due to change considerably, with a significant increase in temperature and a general decrease in rainfall by 2050.

Climate change is therefore a highly political issue. Ambitious public policies are needed at all levels of government (from the local level to the international level) in order to meet current and future challenges.

The work of Groupe d’Action Francophone pour l’Environnement (GAFE) in Haiti

In this context, with no legitimate government, no local politicians and no functioning institutions, it is more than ever up to civil society organisations and citizens to take action and organise themselves to promote a new model of society at all levels. It is essential to contribute to this civic (re)construction, which is the foundation of democracy, through popular education in citizenship, particularly among disoriented young people. In Haiti, as elsewhere, the climate crisis – which is above all political (and economic!) – is closely related to the restoration of democracy and the rule of law.

On 8 December 2022, Ariel Henry facilitated the first meeting of the Comité national de lutte contre les changements climatiques (the National Committee for the Struggle Against Climate Change) at a ceremony in Port-au-Prince, to officially present the national Climate Change Adaptation Plan. But how credible is a committee made up of 6 members of the de facto government, the UNDP representative in Haiti and a representative of a Haitian multimedia platform?

When the de facto Haitian government takes part in COPs (United Nations Climate Change Conference), it doesn’t ask for billions to save the climate and Life. Instead, it wants to get its hands on another windfall that it will squander as others have done before, for example with the ‘Petrocaribe’ funds. It is easier to get your hands on green funds than to combat tax evasion and fraud, smuggling, corruption and impunity.

So what is the point of public policies if there is no legitimate and honest government to implement them? What is the point of having access to funding as long as the issue of corruption and impunity is not resolved, and the rule of law is not in place? Why have corruption and impunity become so predominant? How did they become institutionalised so that they have become the norm?

GAFE’s⁴ answer is that we have resigned as citizens, or more precisely, we have ‘been resigned’ as citizens. We are corrupt. We choose to keep our mouths shut because we are afraid, because we hope to get a few crumbs, to get a job or some kind of advantage.

But corruption and impunity are two cancers that undermine the development and emancipation of the Haitian people and only serve to justify endless projects that will never resolve anything in the long term.

Rather than tending wounds, today we need to wipe out the disease. That is why civic education in favour of (re)building democracy has a central place in GAFE’s strategic plan for 2023-2027. Since 2015, GAFE has facilitated the national civic climate movement, Alternatiba Haiti, which brings together 31 local groups and campaigns for climate justice. It is a movement based on non-violent, collective, citizen-based action, radical advocacy and the promotion of alternatives. Since 2019, GAFE has promoted the ‘Pact for an ecological and social transition’, a document based on broad civic consultation. It works with other Haitian civil society organisations within a National group of Haitian advocacy organisations to make this Pact a decisive instrument to mobilise citizens in the run-up to the next local elections.

From 2020 to 2023, GAFE accompanied 84 young people from six communes and 20 adolescents from the commune of Kenscoff during a process involving civic construction and expression. These young people – some of whose future is ‘blocked’ – are determined to assume their civic responsibilities in their local areas in order to shake up the traditional political landscape.

Lastly, GAFE expresses its opinions openly, and repeatedly denounces a rotten governance system as well as the institutional hypocrisy of the modern custodians of ‘democracy’ and the lesson givers.

In this very complex and difficult context, the development sector has proven to be an extremely competitive and hypocritical economic sector where, under the guise of good intentions, it is better to not express one’s political opinions too loudly. GAFE has had to directly and dangerously pay the price for this. Apart from the physical risks, our views have been taken badly (or even very badly!) by certain organisations and donors. To the point where access to certain funds is refused and certain partnerships are compromised.

What is more, in recent months, GAFE has been confronted with a strategy to systematically smear Haitian civil society as corrupt and incompetent, according to an international financial institution. This campaign has no other goal, in our opinion, than to discredit the demands of Haitian organisations in order to justify the support that is being given to the government in place.

Conclusion

For me, as the Executive Director of GAFE, political innocence does not exist in the development sector where I have been working for more than 20 years. The financial stakes are too high to not influence the behaviour of aid organisations. In Haiti, how can we speak of political innocence or neutrality for organisations who close their eyes, their mouth and their ears while innocent people are massacred in order to protect their relations with the donor? All action is political, and all inaction is political. Every time you speak, it is political, and every time you are silent, it is political.

In this mixed up and uncertain national and global context, civic action in defence of the commons is not a luxury; on the contrary, it is an absolute priority. Power relations must change, and it is up to us – Haitian civil society organisations and citizens – to ‘take back the reins’ and propose a new model of society in which solidarity, mutual aid and the general interest are the norm.

1. www.fsnnetwork.org/sites/default/files/2022-09/Global-Climate-Risk-Index-2021.pdf
2. epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/country/hti
3. https://reliefweb.int/report/haiti/ha-ti-analyse-de-la-r-ponse-pour-l-adaptation-climatique-d-cembre-2021
4. www.gafe-haiti.org