Institution Building in Haiti: An Assessment of the Interim Cooperation Framework 2004-2006

This paper has a dual objective: it is a country case study and a policy evaluation within the background of the Interim Cooperation Framework 2004-2006, a document produced by an international delegation including the World Bank, United Nations, European Commission and Inter-American Development Bank with Haiti's interim government to forge a consensus on the amelioration of Haiti's crisis following the premature departure of President Aristide in February 2004. An underlying theme is that the Interim Cooperation Framework also reflects the World Bank's embrace of the 'new institutionalism' and its applied policy dimension. The paper posits that the critical governance and institutional issues that largely motivated the report are not encompassed by economic theory alone. Given Haiti's history, the new institutional approach would not provide a real point of departure unless fundamental changes were to take place. These include, but are not limited to, resolving the conflict between the peasantry and the state apparatus, addressing conflicts of interest among the heterogeneous ruling class of merchants, politicians, religious entities and large landowners, and curtailing adverse foreign interference.