Although the aim of putting Haiti on a green growth path has been envisioned in some recent development plans, it has not figured prominently in the national policies so far.
The difficult political and socio-economic conflicts that the country has experienced over the last decades has perhaps prevented the green economy vision from achieving a top position in the national agenda.
Key policies and governance approach
The 2019 National Policy to Fight Climate Change [1] aimed at putting Haiti on the path to green growth by 2030, by making the key socio-economic sectors less sensitive to climate change, with sufficient capacities to respond to adverse climatic conditions, and oriented towards the adoption of low-carbon technologies, in particular renewable energies, without compromising their competitiveness, but rather promoting the creation of wealth and new jobs. The policy stated four main pillars: institutional strengthening, improved governance, climate finance, and effective actions to combat climate change.
Initiatives and Development Plans
The UNDP 2019 Strengthening the Solid Waste Management System in Haiti project aims to provide technical assistance for sustainable solid waste management (SGM) in Haiti. The project is seen as an opportunity to trigger the modernization of waste management, leading to strategies for organizing the sustainable collection, transport, and disposal of waste; developing disposal sites in accordance with technical and environmental standards and regulations; and to recycle and recover waste in a perspective of circular economy to improve the living conditions of the population.
- Initiatives such as the ongoing UNDP Strengthening the Solid Waste Management System in Haiti project that seek to address concrete deficiencies in basic infrastructure and services while, at the same time, modernizing the process by introducing recycle and recover schemes to adopt a circular economy approach could help to address these limitations [2].
- Similar initiatives in other sectors such as charcoal and firewood use, adoption of alternative energy sources particularly in rural areas, and wastewater management would be helpful.