Haiti practices a civil law system
strongly influenced by Napoleonic
Code. The democratically elected gov-
ernment is headed by a Prime Minis-
ter, appointed by the President who is
directly elected by absolute majority
popular vote for a 5-year term. The
Prime Minister chooses the Cabinet
in consultation with the President,
and Parliament ratifies the Cabinet
and Prime Minister’s governing policy.
Haiti’s bicameral legislature consists of
the Senate and Chamber of Deputies.
The two groups meet collectively as
the National Assembly which is con-
vened for specific purposes spelled out
in the constitution.
Haiti has no regular military forces
except for a small Coast Guard. A
Ministry of National Defense was es-
tablished in May 2012, but the regular
Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH) - Army,
Navy, and Air Force - were demobi-
lized yet still exist on paper until or
unless they are constitutionally abol-
ished. Since 2004, peacekeepers from
the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti
have been charged with maintain-
ing civil order and currently include
6,685 military, 2,607 police, and 443
civilian personnel. Haiti claims US-
administered Navassa Island.
Haiti became one of the wealthiest
countries in the Caribbean through
28 iF Magazine | April 2017
heavy
impor-
tation of
enslaved Afri-
cans and consid-
erable environmen-
tal degradation from
forestry and sugar-related
industries, including rum. In
1791, Haitians revolted under
Toussaint L’Ouverture to become
the first post-colonial nation in the
world led by Blacks upon defeating
France and declaring its independence
in 1804. Currently the poorest coun-
try in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti
has had to overcome frequent eco-
nomic hardship and political instabil-
ity for most of its history as a result.
Eighty percent (80%) of the Haitian
population lives under the poverty line
and 54% are in abject poverty since
more than two-thirds of the labor
force does not have formal jobs. Pop-
ular occupations are in agriculture at
38.1%, industry at 11.5%, and services
at 50.4% (2010). Industries include
textiles, sugar refining, flour milling,
light assembly using imported parts,
bauxite, copper, calcium carbonate,
gold, marble, cement, hydropower, and
arable land. Two-fifths of all Haitians
de-
pend
on the
agr icultural
sector, mainly small-scale subsistence
farming (coffee, mangoes, cocoa, sug-
arcane, rice, corn, sorghum, wood, and
vetiver), which remains vulnerable to
damage from frequent natural disas-
ters. With only about 4.5 million in
the workforce, Haiti has an abundance
of unskilled labor due to the lack of
a public formal education and skills
training system.
Haiti has long been a free market
economy with low labor costs and
tariff-free access to the US for many
of its exports. The country’s economic
engagement under the Caribbean Ba-