Haiti policy conversations are stronger when they include more Haitian practitioner expertise and practical context.
For much of my professional life, I have worked on governance in Haiti, including within public institutions and across the development and private sectors. My career later took me into international policy and development, working across different countries and engaging with policymakers, practitioners, civil society, and international partners.
Moving between Haitian institutions and international policy environments shaped the way I think about policy. It made me pay closer attention to how international approaches interact with local institutions and political realities, and to the practical context that can be difficult to capture in policy discussions.
For me, this has particular meaning when it comes to Haiti.
Haiti often receives its greatest international attention during moments of crisis. That attention matters, but understanding the country requires going beyond what happened and what should happen next. Why is this happening? What interests and incentives are shaping the choices of different actors? How are institutions and informal dynamics influencing outcomes? And what would a sustainable response require beyond the immediate crisis?
These are some questions Haiti Briefing wants to bring into the conversation.
Much about governance in Haiti cannot be understood through laws, institutions, or official processes alone. How institutions function in practice, the relationships around them, and the realities of implementation matter too. Much of that knowledge comes from people who have worked within these institutions, alongside them, or in the communities affected by their decisions. That is why Haiti Briefing will be strongly practitioner-driven.
Haiti Briefing was created to help bridge the gap between Haiti’s realities and the policy conversations that shape international engagement with the country. We want to bring more practical context, Haitian practitioner knowledge and a wider range of Haitian expertise into those discussions.
The Haitian diaspora is also central to that vision. Haiti Briefing will work in both directions: helping Haitians abroad better understand Haiti’s governance and political processes, while creating more opportunities for diaspora knowledge and expertise to contribute to inform policy conversations.
This matters because those conversations can shape consequential decisions about Haiti. International engagement should be grounded in context, attentive to unintended consequences and mindful of what decisions mean for Haitian institutions and capacity over time.
Through analysis, explainers, expert briefings, and policy dialogue, I want Haiti Briefing to become a trusted resource and policy space, helping policymakers make better-informed decisions, giving journalists stronger context, providing researchers with grounded analysis, and creating more space for Haitian and diaspora expertise in conversations about Haiti.
Sincerely,
Jeffsky Poincy