The cancellation of most US funding in January means that many services to the most vulnerable people have been cut or put on hold.
Several political, security and socio-economic crises have led to 5.7 million people suffering from a lack of food and have forced 1.3 million people to flee their homes.
With a dramatic reduction in funding, Haiti faces a crucial “turning point”.
UN news Talked to Ocha’s Rural Director, Modibo Traore, about the current situation.
Pakinomist: What is the current state of humanitarian funding in Haiti?
Modibo Traore: Humanitarian funding in Haiti undergoes a critical phase, characterized by a growing gap between the needs and available resources. Per. On July 1, only about 8 percent of the required $ 908 million had been mobilized.
This partial coverage allows only a fraction of the 3.6 million people targeting to be reached.
Modibo Traore, Ocha’s Rural Director in Haiti.
The most affected sectors are food security, access to drinking water, primary healthcare, education and protection.
This contraction in international support is part of a global context of several competing crises – Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan – but also reflects a loss of political interest in the Haitian issue.
Pakinomist: What conditions in Haiti have led to such significant financing needs?
Modibo Traore: The growing humanitarian needs observed in Haiti are the result of an accumulation of structural and cyclic factors. On the socio -economic front, multidimensional poverty affects much of the population.
Haiti’s exposure to natural dangers is an aggravating factor.
The country has experienced several major hurricanes that hit the southern region less than a week after an earthquake that has seriously affected the area, not to mention repeated droughts that have had a major impact on farming and livestock farming.
The Downtown area of Port-Au-Prince remains extremely dangerous due to gang activity.
Since 2019, a new dimension has emerged: chronic uncertainty caused by the spread of armed groups, especially in the capital, Port-Au-Prince and now in the center and artibonite departments.
By 2024, the multidimensional crisis that has been shaking Haiti for years has become disastrous.
The level of violence and uncertainty remains high with devastating consequences for the population, including massive displacement of people who were already in vulnerable situations.
UN NEWS: How has the growing control of armed groups affected donor confidence?
Modibo Traore: The emergence of armed groups in Haiti and their increasing control of strategic locations, especially larger roads and entrance gates to the capital, is a major obstacle to safe and effective delivery of humanitarian assistance.
This dynamic has an impact on the risk perception of international donors, who now consider Haiti as a high -threatening environment for intervention. Access to recipients has become irregular in many areas.
The deterioration of the security situation represents a major challenge to mobilize and maintain financial obligations.
Donors have expressed concern about operational risks, especially with regard to securing supply chains, preventing utilization and ensuring accountability.
The operational costs of assistance have also increased.
Pakinomist: What is the impact of the new approach the US administration has taken?
Modibo Traore: On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed the executive order 14169, which introduced an immediate suspension of all new foreign funding from US federal agencies, including humanitarian programs run by USAID and multilateral partners.
In the case of Haiti, the effects through the sudden stop of about 80 percent of US -funded programs felt. NGO partners staff were dismissed, payments were suspended and supply chains were disconnected.
American food aid is prepared for delivery after flooding in Haiti in 2022.
In addition to the structural effects, this suspension created in -depth uncertainty in the Haitian humanitarian system. This situation not only weakened continuity in essential services, but also affected trust between recipient society and humanitarian actors.
Pakinomist: To what extent is the current situation unprecedented?
Modibo Traore: The year 2025 marks a turning point in humanitarian assistance in Haiti. This crisis is not the result of a single or isolated event, but rather a number of deteriorating situations in the context of gradually diminishing international attention.
The interruption of US programs has served as a catalyst for the crisis. USA’s technical partners, many administered social health programs in vulnerable neighborhoods, have ceased operations and deprived hundreds of thousands of people with vital services.
US-CO-funded health centers are closed, leaving pregnant women and children without help.
The current crisis shows the country’s growing insulation.
While previous crises had led to rapid international solidarity, the humanitarian reaction to the situation in 2025 has been slow and partial.
Pakinomist: What difficult decisions have had to be made regarding cutting aid?
Modibo Traore: Interruption of funding has forced humanitarian organizations to make ethically complex and often painful balances.
In protection, for example, safe spaces for women and girls have been drastically reduced.
The long -term development of Haiti is at risk when funding falls.
Cash transfer programs that have been widely used in urban areas since 2021 have also been suspended. These programs allowed vulnerable households to maintain a minimum level of food security. Their suspension has led to a resurgence of coping mechanisms such as child labor, less food and children being taken out of school.
Resistance building activities have also been affected. Programs that combine food security, urban agriculture and access to water, often co-financed by USAID and UN funds, have been frozen.
This compromises not only the immediate response, but also the development of the medium term.
Pakinomist: How is Haitians affected?
Modibo Traore: Children are among the hardest affected. UNICEF and its partners have treated more than 4,600 children suffering from severe acute malnutrition, which represents only 3.6 percent of the 129,000 children who are expected to need treatment this year.
The proportion of institutional maternal deaths has also risen from 250 to 350 per year. 100,000 live births between February 2022 and April 2025.
A survivor of rape rests in a place for internally displaced people in Port-Au-Prince.
In terms of security, the effects are equally worrying. Gender -based sexual violence (GBV) has increased in neighborhoods controlled by armed groups.
In short, the withdrawal of US funding has led to a multidimensional regression in women’s and girls’ rights in Haiti with consequences that are likely to last for several years.
Pakinomist: How have people in Haiti reacted?
Modibo Traore: Recipients expressed a sense of despair over the sudden suspension of the services.
In the working-class neighborhoods of Port-Au-Prince as well as in remote rural areas, cessation of food distribution, healthcare and cash transfers were experienced as a breach of the moral contract between society and humanitarian institutions.
Humanitarian partners communicate transparently about reducing support, so society is to some extent aware of the economic limitations.
