Haiti’s Foreign Aid Future in Limbo

7 February 1991– the Caribbean nation of Haiti inaugurated their first democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in Port-au-Prince. Aristide was overthrown that September, and decades of U.S military operations, IMF loans, UN peacekeeping missions, and regime change followed. Since 2020, Haiti has undergone the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, mass protests over the undemocratic appointment of Ariel Henry which eventually led to his removal, and, as of September 2025, a largely paralysed Transitional Presidential Council (TPC) and the government’s head. The TPC, whose mandate includes holding elections in November, has become the site of personal political divisions among the members and created serious doubts about the possibility of a free and fair election. 

The Haitian government has largely failed to provide security or welfare to its citizens, with gangs controlling up to 90 per cent of Haiti’s capital and expanding their territory into suburban areas in the south. Gangs have morphed into militias, working systematically to control roads and neighborhoods, leading to increased reported incidents of extortion, sexual violence against minors, gender-based violence, and the execution of children. Between January and May 2025, at least 4,026 people were killed, a 24 per cent increase from 2024. Nearly 700,000 Haitian children live without secure housing, and more than 1,600 schools closed in the first half of 2025 due to violence. Hospitals, likewise, have been forced to close due to violence, including the University Hospital of Mirebalais which provided critical emergency care.

Many Haitians depend on foreign aid for social welfare in the wake of their government’s failure, through non-profits like the Red Cross, as well as USAID, the United States’s federal foreign aid agency. Decades of American intervention in Haiti’s economy made staple crops unprofitable, leaving many in rural areas without liveable wages. This has led to urban overcrowding and high unemployment rates, as well as international migration. Humanitarian organisations attempt to reach the most vulnerable Haitians, though gang violence often discourages aid groups from entering  gang-controlled areas to deliver desperately needed medical supplies or fresh water. Bureaucratic red tape often leads to inefficiency; following the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck the island in 2010, USAID spent $1.5 billion on humanitarian relief, but less than 1 per cent of the funds went directly to Haitian companies or organisations for rebuilding efforts and only 900 of USAID’s proposed 15,000 homes were built.  Meanwhile, the Red Cross raised more than half a billion dollars from the international public following the earthquake, promising to build more than 130,000 homes, upgrade local sanitation, and revitalise Haitian neighbourhoods. In reality, ProPublica found that the Red Cross built only six. 

Despite their history of inefficiency, aid groups provide many vital services to Haitians, including humanitarian cash transfers which certain Haitians, including single mothers and families with disabled children, receive for medical costs and to start small businesses. Other groups provide HIV/AIDS treatment and preventative medication to the more than 150,000 people diagnosed with HIV in Haiti. These groups also provide critical medical care and education. 

The Trump administration, however, has decided these benefits do not outweigh the domestic cost of foreign aid spending. On 20 January 2025,  President Trump issued Executive Order 14169 to pause all funding for foreign development aid, including humanitarian funding disbursed by USAID. In response, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Every dollar we spend [...] must be justified with the answer to three simple questions: Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”

The order has left aid groups all over the world, many of whom are dependent on USAID funding, reeling. The UN reported in April that humanitarian groups were already receiving a mere fraction of the needed funds for Haitians and further warned the cessation of cash transfer payments to families with young children could lead to an increase in child labor and see children pulled from schools to work or join gangs. Hospitals and orphanages in Haiti faced shortages of medication, including HIV medication for children and pregnant mothers, throughout the summer. Modibo Traore, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs, disparaged the move as “a breach of the moral contract between communities and humanitarian institutions.” Meanwhile, foreign affairs scholars warn that the move could “erode America’s influence, jeopardize critical alliances and create a vacuum that strategic competitors like China are eager to fill” in the Caribbean. 

This order does not come in isolation. Only days after USAID funding to Haiti was paused, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced that Haiti no longer met the conditions for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), meaning that Haitian immigrants in the United States could be stripped of their legal immigration status and deported. The move comes alongside immigration crackdowns by the Dominican Republic, who have begun to ramp up raids on Dominican sugar plantations where many Haitians work and live. Some of those deported are Dominican-born individuals, as new rules revoke citizenship for people born in the Dominican Republic who are of Haitian descent. 

There is still hope for humanitarian organisations who rely on USAID funding, however. A district court ruled that the Trump administration must spend funds Congressionally allocated to USAID before the end of September; Judge Amir Ali wrote that, in declining to spend the money, the administration was “violating the separation of powers by unilaterally declining to spend congressionally appropriated foreign aid funds.” Nevertheless, the executive has declined to spend the money and the case will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court. Unless a higher court mandates the Trump administration spend USAID’s funding, humanitarian groups in Haiti are stuck in limbo.

Image by U.S. Embassy Haiti via WikimediaCommons