FNE and UNICEF: A Renewed Partnership to Save Haiti's Educational Future

Port-au-Prince, November 7, 2025. — In a Haitian context marked by massive school dropouts, precarious school infrastructure, and multiple crises ravaging the education system, the National Education Fund (FNE) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have decided to renew their joint commitment to support Haitian children.

The Director General of the FNE, Mr. Elysé Colagène, and Ms. Adriana Valcarce, Education Officer at UNICEF, met this Thursday at the UN agency's premises. The main idea is to define a joint strategy to strengthen Haitian educational support, particularly for early childhood and disadvantaged areas.

According to available data, in 2018, approximately 500,000 children aged 6 to 12 were not attending school in Haiti. In the 5-15 age group, one million children lacked access to education. In January 2024, the number of displaced families had increased from 200,000 in November 2023 to approximately 314,000, and among the displaced persons, 172,000 were children.

Many schools serve as temporary shelters for displaced families, while other educational institutions have been seized and looted by armed gangs. Consequently, displaced students and young people are deprived of their right to schooling and training, educational staff (school principals, teachers, administrative executives, university professors, etc.) abandon their residential areas due to gang threats, and those who have the means, even very modest ones, head to a foreign country, notably the United States and Mexico.

In this bleak landscape, the partnership between the FNE and UNICEF appears as a breath of fresh air, but also as a test of public governance.

The two institutions agreed on the need to better manage subsidies and optimize available resources to ensure the schooling of as many children as possible. This approach, if followed by concrete actions, could help restore some confidence in the Haitian state's ability to fulfill its fundamental social role: providing free and quality education.

One of the central points of the meeting was the promotion of early childhood development, an essential link in the Haitian education system, but too often marginalized in Haitian public policies.

As Ms. Valcarce recalled, « a child who is well-nourished, well-stimulated, and well-supported in their early years of life has a much greater chance of succeeding in school ».

The FNE, for its part, committed to integrating more early childhood support programs into its action plans, in collaboration with technical and financial partners. This is a strategic shift, likely to strengthen the very foundation of long-term human development.

However, this political and institutional will faces complex realities: political instability, rampant insecurity, corruption, and a lack of coordination among educational actors. Repeated promises to strengthen the sector have often been lost in bureaucracy and the structural limitations of the state.