What becomes of a country when those who wield power can no longer fulfill the essential functions of the State, while some citizens, worn out by years of crises, come to see public inefficiency as an ordinary reality? This is one of the fundamental questions we must ask ourselves today in Haiti.<\/p>
Our crisis is not limited to insecurity, the economy, or political instability. It also reveals a deep crisis of responsibility. That of the State first, because those in power have the institutions, public resources, and the authority necessary to act. But the citizen also has a role: to monitor public action, question decisions, and participate in democratic life.<\/p>
Governing is not just about holding a public office, issuing statements, or announcing projects. Governing is about setting priorities, making decisions, mobilizing the State's resources, protecting the population, making institutions work, and producing results. A government must be able to clearly explain what it wants to achieve, in what time frame, and with what resources.<\/p>
Without this culture of responsibility, power risks becoming a permanent management of urgency. Crises succeed one another, governments change, promises are renewed, but citizens continue to wait for answers to the same fundamental problems.<\/p>
The figures illustrate the scale of the situation. In May 2026, the International Monetary Fund indicated that about 1.45 million people were displaced within the country and nearly 5.7 million people faced food insecurity. The IMF also described a situation characterized by a severe security and humanitarian crisis and persistent institutional fragility.<\/p>
The economy tells an equally worrying story. According to the World Bank, the Haitian economy contracted for the seventh consecutive year in 2025. Real GDP fell by 2.7%, and the average inflation rate reached 28.3%. The World Bank also estimated that about 49% of the population lived on less than $3 a day according to its poverty line based on purchasing power parity.<\/p>
But a serious analysis requires recognizing the nuances. Saying that nothing is being done would be as inaccurate as claiming that everything is functioning. In May 2026, the IMF indicated that all the objectives of the economic program monitored by its services had been achieved by the end of December 2025. However, it specified that some reforms were progressing more slowly than expected due to insecurity, institutional constraints, and political uncertainty.<\/p>
We must therefore recognize progress when it exists and demand explanations when commitments do not yield the promised effects.<\/p>
The primary responsibility remains that of those in power. A citizen and a public official do not have the same means, authority, or level of accountability. Those who control an institution, a budget, or a public policy must be able to justify their decisions and the use of the resources entrusted to them. One cannot place the State, which possesses the instruments of power, on the same level as the citizen, who often directly suffers the consequences of its dysfunctions.<\/p>
But this does not mean that the citizen should remain a spectator.<\/p>
A democracy does not function only on voting day. It functions when citizens follow public decisions, take an interest in the use of State money, question the policies being pursued, support a press capable of investigating freely, and participate in community organizations.<\/p>
We must especially combat a dangerous habit: the normalization of failure.<\/p>
When a destroyed road for years no longer shocks anyone, when the absence of a public service becomes normal, when insecurity settles into daily life, and when the same promises can be repeated without a specific assessment, a society gradually begins to lower its expectations of its State.<\/p>
This normalization weakens trust. When citizens think that their participation will change nothing, some withdraw from public life. Others seek individual solutions to problems that should receive collective responses. Those who can afford it seek private services. Those who can leave sometimes consider leaving the country. And those who stay often have to learn to function despite institutional weaknesses.<\/p>
This is how the distance between the State and the population can continue to grow.<\/p>
However, the solution is not to replace indifference with permanent anger. A democratic society needs an organized, informed, and demanding citizenship. It must be able to transform discontent into proposals, local participation, and democratic control.<\/p>
Controlling public action means asking concrete questions: what was the objective? What budget was allocated to the project? What deadline was announced? How were the resources used? What results were obtained?<\/p>
The press, universities, professional organizations, community associations, and civil society have an essential role here. Their work should not be limited to commenting on crises after they occur. They can document public policies, compare commitments to achievements, make data accessible, and create spaces for debate on decisions that concern the population.<\/p>
And then, there is the youth.<\/p>
Haitian youth must occupy a central place in this reflection. They represent a generation facing insecurity, unemployment, weak institutions, and a growing desire to seek their future elsewhere. Yet, their political future should not be decided without them.<\/p>
Youth can inform themselves, organize, confront ideas, and examine the programs of all those aspiring to wield power. They can refuse to choose based on slogans, affiliations, or immediate interests and instead look at proposals, backgrounds, and commitments.<\/p>
Haiti is currently seeking to return to general elections after a long interruption of the national electoral process. When elections are organized in conditions that allow citizens to exercise their voting rights, electoral participation constitutes a concrete way to make one's voice heard.<\/p>
Voting does not mean giving a blank check to a candidate or party. It means examining the choices available and deciding freely according to one's convictions and priorities.<\/p>
Civic responsibility does not stop at the ballot box.<\/p>
After the elections begins another phase: following the decisions of the elected officials, observing the use of public resources, and comparing commitments made to achievements. An electoral mandate should never mean several years without citizen oversight.<\/p>
The new generation therefore faces an essential question: what kind of State does it want for the coming decades? What institutions does it want to leave to its children? What political culture does it wish to build?<\/p>
This answer belongs to every citizen.<\/p>
Haiti can no longer afford to trivialize failure, inaction, or lack of results. Exercising power must mean serving, deciding, acting transparently, and assuming the consequences of one's decisions. A public function is not a privilege. It is a responsibility to the nation.<\/p>
But the citizen cannot abandon public space to those in power. A vibrant democracy requires a present, informed, and vigilant population. Get informed. Organize. Question the authorities. Follow the use of public resources. Compare promises to achievements. Defend your rights through the available democratic means.<\/p>
To the youth, the message is equally clear: your future should not be decided without your participation. Examine ideas, programs, and backgrounds. When conditions allow for the free exercise of the right to vote, participate in the electoral process and choose according to your own convictions. After the polls, remain engaged in civic life.<\/p>
No leader will rebuild the country’s institutions alone. No election will resolve, by itself, decades of institutional fragility. Sustainable change requires functioning institutions, officials accountable to democratic oversight, and citizens who reject indifference.<\/p>
Power must assume its responsibility. Citizens must exercise theirs.<\/p>
Each generation bears the responsibility to decide the country it wishes to build. For Haiti, this responsibility can no longer be postponed.<\/p>
