 Welcome to our Ask the Expert series at the United States Institute of Peace. Today, we'll be talking about Haiti with a governance and policy specialist, Jeffsky Poincey. Welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Andrew. Looking at the civil society elements and the demands of civil society, who do you think the most important sectors of civil society are? I mean, are they religious figures, private sector students? I mean, which parts of civil society have important voices to bear in the political process and informing how we move to good governance and a way out of this situation? Well, I mean, I want to see the civil society as a world, right? And all sectors are important. But at the same time, we've seen in the past in Haiti where some sectors have had a more important voice, for example, the religious sector and the private sector, for example. But I think we have to go beyond this paris segment. We have to be more inclusive and make sure that everyone has a voice and all the sectors have a say in the matters of Haiti. And within those matters and shifting, hopefully, in the medium and long term to good governance, what are the governance issues that need to be tackled? Is there issues with decentralization? Are there issues with budget? Execution and assembly of the budget, participatory budgeting, what are the most highest priority governance issues that you see? Well, I think the biggest issue in terms of governance in Haiti is corruption. It's the short term, the medium term, and the long term issue. And it has a multi-dimensional effect on the country, from a social perspective, from a governance perspective, and from an economic perspective as well. And that should be the priority. And we've seen good signals coming from the civil society lately, especially the young people that are increasingly becoming more aware of the impact of corruption on the country, from an economic perspective, from a social perspective, as well as from a political perspective, from a governance perspective, as I mentioned earlier. And I think this is the Haiti that we want to see. Haiti where the leaders are being held accountable. And this is the path moving forward if we really want to build trust between the citizen and the politician. Because what we've seen for the past 30 years is this trust has been broken. And there's a wide spread of this trust between the citizen and the politician. And that even affect the willingness of the citizen to take part in the political life of the country. What do you think the role of foreign intervention and foreign assistance has been thus far for good and for bad? And how do you see that in the future? And what do you think the best place for foreign support could be? Well, I think the foreign policy towards Haiti has been ineffective and to some extent detrimental for the country at many levels. So I think the foreign strategy, like the U.S. strategy and the international community in general, tend to see Haiti from a fragility perspective. So I think if we want to shift this paradigm, if we want to change that, we have to start seeing Haiti for its potential. So I think this crisis has been a critical juncture for the young people in particular that made significant efforts to embrace the challenges of Haiti and to take ownership of the future of Haiti. So I think this is a real opportunity for the U.S. and the international community as well. It's a stepping stone to wish it, to revisit the strategies in Haiti, to move from a paternalistic approach to a more localized and mutually beneficial approach. And I think that's the path moving forward. We understand, the Haitian people understand that the international community has a role to play in the future of Haiti. And that should be much more focused on supporting the civil society, supporting the government, the good governance in Haiti, both from the civil society and from the government, and at the same time creating opportunities and investment in the country. I want to drill down on the security aspect. We understand that the Haitian security forces, the police, need to address the issue of violence in Haiti. What can be done, if anything, to support them? Would it be a UN stabilization or a peacekeeping mission? Or has that been tried and failed? Or is there anything else that can be done to support the Haitian police? Well, there's a lot that can be done, but I think a peacekeeping mission in Haiti won't work. And the reason for that is straightforward. It didn't work before. We had a peacekeeping mission in Haiti for almost 13 years, from 2004 to 2015, and look at the situation right now. And at the same time, I think one of the preconditions for any type of external intervention is the local legitimacy, legitimacy from the people. And I don't think the Haitian people would welcome any peacekeeping mission because it could be unfair to ask them to legitimize a peacekeeping mission when the last one hasn't been held accountable for the enormous atrocities that they committed in Haiti during their time. And we're talking about the outbreak of cholera. We're talking about several cases of civilian casualties, waves, sexual harassment, et cetera. And I think it's very important to see it from this perspective as well. But I do think there's a lot that the international community could bring to help solve the security issue. The first is to support, to provide support to the Haitian police and not only support in terms of weapons, but more technical support. We're talking about the intelligence. We're talking about building the capacity to investigate complex crimes. And we can even put together an international framework to assist the Haitian prosecutors and the judiciary in investigating and prosecuting high influential people that are involved in crimes and like that. So I think this is the way moving forward. And again, the gang violence is an internal issue. It has a lot of, it's a multidimensional issue. And the political component is a very important aspect of it. And if we want to solve this issue, we have to see it from that perspective. We have to cut the ties between the gang violence, between the gangs and the politicians. Absolutely. Well, you paint a complex picture, a multidimensional picture that needs a lot of help to imagine the way forward. But I think you've shown us clear ways. And thank you very much for that analysis. And thank you for being with us today. Thank you. Thank you for having me.