A Haitian boy carries a bag of food he recieved at a relief program run by CARE and protected by UN peacekeeping troops outside Gonaives, Haiti.Kent Gilbert/AP
Shortly after he was sworn in as Haiti's newest President, Michel Martelly offered the international community a promise that doubled as a challenge: "Haiti is open for business," he said.
The provocative performer vaulted to political power on vows to transform Haiti's basket-case economy into a beacon for trade. "We cannot continue with this humiliation of having to extend our hand for help all of the time," he said in his inaugural speech earlier this month.
Yet for years, the international community has responded to Haiti's staggering needs with handouts instead of investment, partly because of its tenuous political climate.
Haiti is the largest recipient of Canada's foreign aid, this year surpassing Afghanistan. Even before the country's devastating earthquake in 2010, Ottawa has stood at the forefront of efforts to stabilize the country, funnelling more than a billion dollars of aid to Haiti in the past six years alone.
Now, with a newly-installed Haitian president encouraging foreign investment, there is growing pressure for Canada to lead the way in redefining the international community's dealings with Haiti. Experts say Canada should seek to answer Mr. Martelly's call by forging a new relationship with Haiti based on trade, not aid.
"I believe the time has come for a major shift from the logic of assistance that prevailed for decades in Haiti and that has not delivered anything, but created a situation of dependency," said Michaëlle Jean, Canada's former governor-general who currently serves as UNESCO's special envoy for Haiti.
"What it has created – this logic of assistance – has turned Haiti into some kind of a laboratory of experiments and projects that has installed in the country over 40,000 NGOs," Ms. Jean continued.
Rather than targeting charity on the poorest of the poor – the 80 per cent of Haitians that live on less than $2 a day – experts say efforts should focus on bolstering the middle class by encouraging small- and medium-sized enterprises, generating jobs through trade, credit and creating joint ventures with Haitian companies in sectors with growth potential, such as tourism and energy.
Haiti's middle class, roughly 15 per cent of the population that relies on the country's tiny elite for its status, has typically been ignored. Many fled Haiti's turmoil long ago, lured by opportunities in Miami, Paris or Montreal. Now experts say the middle class holds the key to Haiti's future and needs to be rebuilt.
"If we really want to re-engage in Haiti, we have to do it economically. The problem is, do we have the necessary partners to do that?" asks Chalmers Larose, a professor of political science at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
"In order to really empower the middle class, you need real economic exchange," he said.
Prof. Larose says Ottawa should consider creating a free trade agreement with Haiti so that goods manufactured in the country could be imported, duty-free, to Canada.
The United States enacted such legislation several years ago to encourage Haiti's garment industry, which once employed about 60,000 workers before suffering from political instability and competition from Asia.
HOPE, or the Haitian Hemispheric Opportunity through Partnership Encouragement Act, provides duty-free access to the U.S. market for woven and knit clothing made in Haiti from fabrics from third countries. Since the legislation was passed in 2007, and subsequently strengthened in the wake of the earthquake, experts say it has created thousands of jobs.
Energy is another sector where Canada could do business with Haiti, which suffered from routine blackouts, even before the earthquake.
"Quebec is at the forefront of energy production, so it could become involved with that," Prof. Larose points out.
Ottawa could also create incentives for Canadian companies to base client service operations in Haiti, tapping into its bilingual population. Tourism is another opportunity that once proved lucrative and could be revived, analysts say.
"The middle class and small business owners will ultimately be the prime generators of jobs in Haiti. In a place where you have 80-per-cent unemployment, jobs are going to be essential to long-term recovery," says William O'Neill, a program director with the U.S.-based Social Science Research Council.
Retooling Canada's relationship with Haiti is not just about striking new business ventures, argues Ms. Jean, but requires a new way of thinking about Haitians themselves.
"The shift that must happen now is towards a new logic of investment," she said.
"When people speak about Haitians, all they say is they speak about their resilience, as if these people were born for catastrophes. ... I think it's time to see more than resilience in the Haitian people. They are capable. It's a work force that needs more investment and that can be very promising."
Last in a three-part series on Canada's foreign policy in the Western Hemisphere
Read the entire series and join the conversation at tgam.ca/time-to-lead