Haiti has suffered with both environmental disasters and political chaos since 2010. As the poorest country in the western hemisphere, it is no surprise that more than half its population lives in poverty. The nation constantly struggles with food insecurity, clean water and access to quality health care. Limited job skills training exacerbated these struggles, highlighting the urgent need for better higher education in Haiti.

The State University of Haiti in Port-au-Prince, the country’s biggest university, has seen sharp fluctuations in attendance numbers. In the 2022-2023 school year, almost 30,000 students were enrolled. That number reduced by half, with fewer than 15,000 students attending the current 2024-2025 school year. This sharp drop is directly linked to the dangerous conditions in Port-au-Prince, where armed gangs have taken over large parts of the city and even the countryside. This sharp drop in attendance shows the impact Haiti’s instability has had on higher education in Haiti.

How Higher Education in Haiti Impacts Poverty and Stability

1. Brain Drain: Haitians are leaving the nation for opportunities elsewhere. When educated people leave Haiti for schools abroad and do not come back, the country loses crucial talent. The nation desperately needs nurses and doctors to help sick Haitians. Engineers are essential to fix power and repair infrastructure. Without these trained professionals, the country becomes even more unstable, leading to fewer jobs for everyone. Brain drain has contributed to the steady decline of other nations. While it is difficult to calculate the exact number of people leaving the country for university overseas, at least 1.3 million people have been internally displaced from their homes due to the violence.
2. Clean Water: Universities educate people to become engineers and construction managers, fields that Haiti desperately needs, as they work to address issues related to clean water. Less than 1% of Haiti has proper sewer systems, which leads to contaminated water and causes deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid. Without an educated population to address this issue, Haiti will likely continue to struggle to find practical solutions for clean water and sewage, which can result in the spread of disease and illness.
3. Disaster Management: Frequent earthquakes plague Haiti, which sometimes have disastrous effects for the nation. How Haiti responds to these disasters is dependent on educated Haitians that do the work to rebuild buildings and bridges following intense earthquakes. If Haitians do not receive training to address these complex issues the impact of earthquakes can be long lasting and result in instability as power and transportation remain unreliable. A perfect example of how universities provide important training to Haitians was the training program that the State University of Haiti launched to train students at foreign universities so they could return more prepared for disaster management.

Rebuilding Haiti: ACTIVEH

There are groups working hard to strengthen higher education in Haiti. One great example is Action Toward Initiatives & Volunteering for Education in Haiti (ACTIVEH). This nonprofit started in Port-au-Prince in 2011 and is working to improve Haiti’s higher education system by giving students real-world experience and leadership skills.

ACTIVEH runs a volunteering and community service program and an internship program. Since 2014, it has brought in more than 250 students from 10 different universities and helped more than 150 students get internships.

Haiti’s current crisis has impacted the number of students attending its universities and prevented people from getting an education so that they can contribute in a positive way. This decrease in trained professionals weakens Haiti’s ability to solve its most urgent problems, which are what cause poverty in the country.

Looking Ahead

Despite these huge roadblocks, groups like ACTIVEH show the amazing strength and potential within Haiti to rebuild its education system. By doing so, they offer a real way to bring stability and reduce poverty. Supporting these efforts is absolutely crucial for Haiti’s long-term recovery and for the well-being of its people.

– Jeff Mathwig

Jeff is based in Philadelphia, PA, USA and focuses on Global Health and Politics for The Borgen Project.

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