TOWARDS A HAITIAN-LED ROADMAP FOR STABILITY AND PEACE WITH REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT

August 20, 2025 - Washington, DC

(Presentation delivered at the regular meeting of the Permanent Council)

Distinguished permanent representatives,
Distinguished delegates,
Permanent observers.
Dear colleagues,

As the chair has stated, in compliance with the resolution adopted at the General Assembly in Antigua and Barbuda on the 27th of June 2025, which was titled "Calling for Concrete Solutions to be brought to bear as a matter of urgency to resolve the grave security and institutional crisis in Haiti" in which mandates were provided to the secretariat to prepare a Roadmap. I am here today to present to you the second version of the Roadmap as it stands now today.

I want to say that earlier on I had indicated the importance of Haiti for reasons already discussed. It requires the highest level of attention of this Organization in support of the people of Haiti. On that basis, we have already indicated that it would feature high on the agenda of this Secretariat.

This document which is presented, and the mandate has been presented on the screen. This document, which has been presented to you is nothing more, nothing less, than a stepping stone, an ongoing evolving stepping stone towards a comprehensive framework focusing on addressing Haiti's immediate - short-term and long-term - needs for stability and peace and partnership, and with support of regional and international actors.

I want to stress the point that Haitian leadership in this process is important. Out of that Haitian leadership will come Haitian commitment from the broader society. I wanted to say this upfront.

It's important to keep this in mind that this is not an absolute document, but it's a living document that will evolve given circumstances that appear or emerge in Haiti, in the OAS, in the international community, at the United Nations, which we have to take into account and then adjust the plans accordingly.

This is a work in progress and of course we are open to further refinement based on suggestions made already by several member states and I would like to thank all member states, but also the institutions that have been involved in this work, including Haiti, CARICOM and the institutions like the United Nations. The UN MSS mission represented here today by its Executive Director, Mara Tekach, the IDB, PAHO, and IICA for their feedback. And I'm sure that feedback will come over the coming period frequently.

We have, in this second version, we have taken on board as many suggestions as possible, those which are not represented as yet, is simply because of the timeline which we had in terms of translation, the deadlines for that and the submission to the Permanent Council. So, I want to ask your indulgence that in version three, which will come very quickly, those will be in incorporated.

The United Nations has also made very valuable comments, we know that there is a process ongoing in the United Nations, we are possibly in the coming three months we'll have to have further discussions on roles and responsibility, and I'll come back to that shortly.

Mr. Chairman this is what I wanted to say before I go into the substantive areas.

Although I must say: all of you have received the documents, I'm going to be very high level because you have scrutinized it, you have provided comments. So, based on that, I know that you have taken it seriously. I don't need to go into the details of it, but I have also said from the beginning that details will follow after this meeting. Once it is the marching orders for the Secretariat to work with this as a as a basic document, then we need to follow up with many, many meetings in every single pillar with different stakeholders to identify in what form we can incorporate their contribution in a very integrated way without duplication.

If we go to the next slide which basically is the framework of thought here. This document is not a prescription, it is created in collaboration with all stakeholders. This is owned by all stakeholders and it is not prescriptive. It is not meant to tell others what to do, but it's based on a logical framework.

Let me also stress and this has been also your comments, security first is indeed true. The level of security the level of public security needs to be priority number one, and we have taken that on board. It was always priority number one, but it doesn't mean and we have heard this also as feedback from member states, that we do not do anything else. We need to be able to work on some other elements while security is being addressed. I want to stress the point that this is really a collective approach.

This requires everybody to be on board because it's a shared responsibility going to the heart of the OAS as it exists in terms of democracy, in terms of sustainability, of governance, good governance, in terms of development and security. So, I hope that everybody is on the same page when I say that no single actor or donor can solve the crisis alone.

It will require all of us to work together based on our specific capabilities and commitment which we can bring to the table. I must also say that means also though that we cannot expect that the funding the financing and let me put it in more general term: The support to Haiti in terms of financing, technical expertise, in terms of in-kind support that has to come only from one or a few countries. It must be a collective effort of the whole hemisphere. I speak for the whole hemisphere in this sense, but of course globally there are committed partners as well. But speaking for the hemisphere, it must be a committed effort throughout the hemisphere.

It cannot be that one or two countries alone provide the assistance which is going to be required. So, I count on that commitment from member states.

If we go to the next slide, and we will share this slide with you so that in case you need to present this to headquarters, you can share this as well. Now, I know that one element has been referred to by many member states and that is to understand better the roles and responsibilities.

And again, this is going to be an evolving process depending on institutional arrangements that exist including the MSS, including the possibility of an adoption of a new resolution on Haiti at the United Nations. Roles and responsibilities will evolve.

With the same players but in different capacities and some with more expanded mandates, some with less prominence in the process, we will see how that evolves. We don't know as yet. But, for now as it stands these are the three entities which we call the tripartite coordinating mechanism. And let me be clear as well as it further develops and I have communicated this to member states Mr. Chair.

This group that will coordinate once we go into the implementation phase will expand. To include member states, to include Haiti, to include other institutions that can play a critical role with specialized capabilities. The World Food Programme, in terms of humanitarian assistance has the capabilities, understands what needs to be done. We can bring them on board as well through the United Nations.

But for now, for the OAS, I think one of the key deficiencies not on purpose, but as it has grown, is the lack of coordination in terms of the support to be provided and that regrettably hampers effectiveness of existing aid, existing support also within the Inter-American system also within the OAS. We have seen that already.

Information flow is limited. We do not know what others do, but there is need for more effective coordination in a transparent manner. That means also, and I'll come back to this providing all the information which we have on a dashboard which will be available to all member states, anybody who can then click and see interactively what is being done in which area, in which region of Haiti.

So that the member states can pinpoint exactly what they can do more and where. So, coordination in the first instance in the Inter-American System, the coordination role will also will be, of course, with CARICOM and with the United Nations. But as we speak for the hemisphere, it will be through the OAS.

We will facilitate as much as can be political support and we have added this point about facilitation because beyond that we can't go. We do not have a mandate for peace keeping operations to manage, but we can do a lot in the context of facilitating that process, and later you'll see some specific aspects of that.

Mobilization of political support and resources - that is what will happen after we have your okay to continue with this process.

Now the Caribbean community, which Haiti is part of, plays a critical role. And they have done already a lot of good work in terms of political facilitation with Haitian stakeholders -whether that needs to be expanded or not that is up for discussion and will be done in close cooperation with the Haitian authorities, with the Transitional Presidential Council, with the Prime Minister's office. Engagement with Haitian stakeholders is important in the context of one of the issues that we need to deal with, and that is the expiration of the term in office of the transitional Presidential Council mandate early February next year, so we need to see what will come after because this is not a plan for six months only. This is far longer. So that is a political issue. We believe that CARICOM can be very helpful, with the support of both the OAS and the UN. And we look forward to the guidance from their experience on the engagement process. For the United Nations the peacekeeping mandate remains within the remit of the United Nations Security Council. Again, as I said the possibility of a resolution to fine-tune how that is going to work in the future - I hope that will be brought to the table of the UNSC very quickly.

The global political support to be mobilized, as I said, it's not only the Western hemisphere, although we need to play a critical role, it's also one of the roles of the United Nations.

The role of the Haiti working group within the UN led by Ambassador Bob Rae of Canada is important to mobilize also information but also analysis and future direction and ongoing technical assistance. Now, I must say throughout all of this, this is a plan, but already a lot is happening - a lot is being done already.

So, let us not forget that Haiti is receiving assistance from several institutions, several member states and I want to thank the member states and institutions for that. There are very useful elements and initiatives. What we are looking forward to now is how do we coordinate better, build synergies and make sure that the impact for the Haitian people is felt.

So, this is at this point, how we see the roles and responsibilities in an evolving process.

If we go to the next slide, the five pillars, as I said, I'm not going to go in detail here, but these five pillars have been outlined on several occasions.

I think the takeaway here should be we can easily put more aspects, more elements to the five pillars. And that is fine, as time continues, it will happen. Because if we improve a little bit the health situation, then the focus will become on other aspects of health security. But the first step is security, stabilization, and peace restoration. That's going to be throughout the plan an ongoing issue.

There are couple of things there which I want to highlight and we're going to have some follow-up meetings this week. The key thing here is that we - and this is very high level - that we strengthen the capabilities in Haiti with the Haitian law enforcement agencies, so that in the future they can continue to take care in a sustainable manner the public safety and public security. So that we don't need to always interfere in that process or support that process. But that will require a long-term approach in terms of training, equipment, different operating basis of which some are functioning with the support of Canada, but it's not enough at the moment.

We will need to work towards the plan because the plan is not to just provide assistance, but to leave something behind where Haiti can continue building toward a sustainable future. And in terms of security stabilization and peace restoration the key thing is to strengthen Haitian law enforcement authorities and agencies in such a way that as time progresses, they can take care of their own security situation.

Now, there is one specific element I believe where international coordination will be important because I can go into details operationally and the MSS will make some presentations next week in the Group of Friends meeting so I'll wait for that.

But the issue of maritime security is critical in terms of port access, port security, the import and illegal trafficking in firearms which furnishes the Haitian gangs, but also the issue of illegal drugs possibly and international organized crime. I'm not saying that they are there, but these are often the weak positions which they're looking for in several countries.

Maritime security requires coordinated in international response, and specifically on that we will speak next week this week also in the context of CARICOM, but also in the context of the existing mechanisms of several countries, European countries, Spain the Netherlands, who have operational outfits in the Caribbean and see how we can mobilize those within the region, within Haiti.

I think that will cut off a source of effectiveness to the gangs, but the sooner that starts the better and it creates a more safer port management as well as road security to make the especially the road from the port to the airport of port of friends is critically important. At this point, it is controlled by the gangs.

We need to make sure that it's free and there is safe passage. So, slowly, we'll have to go step by step improving the security. That's just one example of an element that fits within a more stable and sustained security environment.

But at the same time, as I mentioned before, we need to work on two other issues: one is the political consensus and governance support in the context also of the expiration of the mandate of the TPC and part of this process will be to find consensus possibly with international civil society organizations and diaspora as well, with their input, a consensus agenda going forward. Governance issue, political agenda, constitutional reform, focusing on the critical areas where assistance is needed. So, there's a lot of work to be done there.

We see for CARICOM a particular role together with member states who are willing to support the process and engage. Again this is a particular issue where we will speak next week when the group of the tripartite coordinating mechanism will meet here.

Out of that process, we'll need to come on election preparation so that we have a legitimate government in place and a legitimate parliament who can govern with support of the international community with support of an agreed consensus agenda going forward so that but that will not happen on the short term that will take some time before we come there because there are several steps the OAS has capabilities to support that process.

Mr. Chairman,

We are ready to do that through the Secretariat for Democracy and DECO, but we'll have to wait on this process to mature a little bit more.

Now, in terms of humanitarian response, apart from identifying exactly what kind of responses are required, not only short-term needs, emergency supplies, but also in terms of health care and education to provide humanitarian assistance.

The more young adults are taken off the street and put into schools the less they become vulnerable to become part of the gangs and their actions, because we see that many young Haitians are given a gun and stand then in the front lines of gangs. The real culprits are not seen then, but that will depend on the security environment and the ability to distribute assistance in an effective manner. Effective manner in this case is simply if assistance is provided, when assistance is provided, it needs to arrive well, there should no leakage at the port, it must be transported safely to those in need and must benefit the displaced persons the youth and those in need of healthcare.

And on healthcare, PAHO did a great job last time at the first meeting of the Group of Friends to very vividly illustrate the situation in terms of health care, and a lot more will be needed in terms of health care with many hospitals not functioning, one of the last ones still under threat recently.

We have a lot of work to do in terms of humanitarian assistance in the broader context. It's not just food, water, and nutrition. It's much more than that.

Once we have an election and a legitimate government, I think the key thing will be to sustain governance in a stable manner and for that we will need sustainable development and economic progress. That can happen now already in the areas where these things can happen it's not that the whole country is locked down and it's happening already.

The Inter-American Development Bank and others are ready to engage and in the World Bank, they already indicated even the amounts which are available for that purpose, but we need to have to have that opportunity in Haiti itself to be able to focus on these issues. At this point, it's focusing on emergency crisis management, but at some point, it must be a time when institutions can focus on economic development and utilizing international support to improve the situation.

We go to the next slide. Now this is particularly something which I wanted to share with you because this is really something within the OAS and I mentioned this in the informal consultation several times already. As I mentioned, we have a coordinating group mechanism the tripartite mechanism, OAS, UN and CARICOM - it will be expanded once we start with the implementation and a further coordination that is ongoing. We hope to have our second meeting in person -the first one was virtual here in Washington - hosted by the OAS next week the 27th. I can tell you that we expect Ambassador Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary General of the UN to join us on that day for several meetings but certainly the coordinating mechanism and the Group of Friends.

We are awaiting the final delegation from Haiti, but I expect a high-level delegation to be present at the Group of Friends meeting next week, as well as the EPG the eminent persons group of CARICOM has already confirmed that they will be here including high level representation from the CARICOM Secretariat.

Next week, Wednesday, August 27, we will have three to four meetings specifically the whole day in fact on Haiti, culminating in the Group of Friends meeting which will start at 2:00 p.m.

Once we go into the operational elements of execution of the Haiti Roadmap we have proposed to appoint a high-level special representative to carry out this task, both operationally as well as in terms of the political consultations to be held.

High level because such a person with high level profile, political profile must be respected and must be able to communicate with governments and the Haitian authorities as well as the international community. This is something which the Secretary General can do but I think it's important to get your input on that as well. We have the Group of Friends of Haiti as an informal platform where we can listen to each other. I like to be more practical, not only listen, but here also the specific commitments once we have outlined those and that's already done in the Haiti Roadmap.

I think we had already mentioned that for more than a month now we have had the OAS Interdepartmental Working Group on Haiti with several departments working together, cross-cutting throughout and they have been very active and very engaged, very committed, and I want to take the opportunity to thank them for the hard work they have been doing. We may push a bit too fast sometimes, but we want things to happen, but they have been putting extra hours into this and weekends to make all these processes happen. I think it requires due respect and appreciation.

Now, we have other inter-agency spaces - broader as I mentioned, -we will present also to the permanent observers once the Roadmap on Haiti is approved because I think they can play a role in supporting this process. We will speak again more specifically with the Inter-American institutions and broaden then to other specialized agencies and we also intend to have a meeting with the different thinktanks in Washington DC to inform them about the process so that they have a better understanding about where we are going that will happen Monday afternoon and the coordinators of the regional groups, in an extended format, will also be informed Monday on the follow-up after the decision today.

I look forward to engaging in this context because this is on high level activity. I look forward to engaging with member states and possibly on Monday more in detail if this initiative this Roadmap, but also the commitment of the whole body does not require a status of a special mission and we will talk about that, we have two special missions in the OAS the one on MAPP/OAS in Colombia and Belize, Guatemala adjoins its own management structure as a special mission.

I personally think that it is useful from an operational perspective to have in one box clearly all what is required to make this Roadmap a success in a special mission status. It elevates also for our partners elsewhere in the world and in the Americas how they should look at this, and how relevant and important this is for the OAS. But I leave that discussion for the future, but I look forward to early engagement with member states on this specifically.

Next slide.

The Roadmap and the timeline, as I said that will not be one where we can be very specific, but this is very general. I apologize you can't read it well, but you have it in the document. There is a foundational part a preparatory strategy which is taking place basically right now.

So, Q4 2025 starts soon and once approved that we can continue with this process because there is a 30-day implementation period to start off this process and as you see security remains key. The political consultative process starts immediately and it's over a period of 24 to 36 months. It doesn't mean that we expect everything to be resolved in that period, but we need to put a certain time frame on this process.

It could take longer, but we hope that after 36 months, we can have a situation where security is reasonably under control, where the people of Haiti are reasonably assisted in terms of the humanitarian needs, whether it's a governance structure which can build on and slowly strengthen itself towards the future, and that slowly our role becomes less, but still in support of Haiti going forward.

As I said, depending primarily on developments in Haiti, this timeline will be different, going forward, but this is what we work with. We need a first idea. There will be other emerging priorities to be involved and to be included as well.

Now the last slide is something which everybody will look at because it talks about money and funding. This is estimated funds, I know there are a lot of questions, there were a lot of questions with regard to the first part which we in the first one where the feeling was that security was not getting enough attention, but we did not have the information of the different commitments made. Now we have that, and this gives you a different picture.

In terms of security stabilization, of peace restoration, many countries already contribute a lot in this effort. This amount includes those commitments as well. I know that the United States and Canada are front runners in this regard, 1.3 billion is estimated going forward, that's the chunk of money, there's a lot of more than 50% which will be required, but it's an important exercise and it's a very expensive exercise.

Then we have the humanitarian response, on the basis of the UN assessments this is the call for humanitarian assistance, so we have copied that number there.

The political consensus and governance support and we are taking here a period of approximately 12 months to facilitate this process 12 to 15 months 8 million. Electoral process and institution legitimacy on the basis of experience of the past 104 million. The details I can provide you in all the things the different things that need to be done and the sustainable development economic progress. This is a figure which the IDB President mentioned here the last time around, but if we include the World Bank's effort and the second phase of the IDB's intention and other sub-regional banks we come closely to a billion US dollars in terms of commitments with regard to economic development. But that will depend on the implementation capabilities on the Haitian side as well.

Now, to manage this all if there is a special mission and the cost also of a team that will be dedicated to the implementation, which must be led by a high-level special representative over the full period of three years that will be approximately 10 million US that includes several elements, and we have some details which we have indicated. This is the framework approximately 2.6 billion over the coming 36 months.

Our next slide is just for your information.

I mentioned Mr. Chair, distinguished representatives, that we must be transparent and provide all the information in terms of support to Haiti. So a dashboard is being prepared and it will be interactive, it will be very specific, it will give information of all that is being done by country, by region, in which sectors, so that we can monitor that, we can develop that, some of them will be live, so they will change on a daily basis.

I hope that within two, three months we can complete this process, and we have that going live early January. It's a lot of work that goes into it in terms of developing this, but we are progressing well and again, fully with internal capabilities, so we're not hiring any agency to do this for us.

The next slides are outcomes which you will be able to monitor yourself, who is doing what, by the way, these figures are not real figures, these are just for purpose of some of them are real, but most of them are just for illustration purposes.

That is the presentation, Mr. Chairman, in compliance with the with the resolution, there is a plan, it's an evolving plan, there is budget, it reflects the regional commitment and certainly to Haiti´s sovereignty, that's why we have engaged very closely and at all levels at a high level with the Haitian authorities and we are ready to provide coordination, I think we have done that before. So, we have capabilities, we can provide specific support to the electoral process and a dialogue in support of CARICOM's leadership. But it's not going to be alone the OAS, this will require many more agencies to be involved.

I think the two things which will determine success are coordination and funding. We can make the best plans but if it is not possible to execute it doesn't take us anywhere.

And again, I appeal to all member states to do their part where possible and it's not only in providing finance but is also in technical expertise, in-kind support and other ways of supporting the process.

That is the presentation Mr. Chairman,

I want to make sure that the membership the Permanent Council is always informed, so although not part of the resolution I believe it's important that we commit to reporting back in terms of the implementation maybe every two months, so that we can provide you with an update about where we are and what the challenges are - if need be more often. Once a special representative is appointed that person can be in contact with the membership more often, but if we commit to report as a Secretariat to the membership, I think every two months seems to be a reasonable time.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much, distinguished ambassadors.