The Transitional Presidential Council named Garry Conille as Haiti’s new Prime Minister on May 28, 2024, selecting a technocratic figure with international development credentials to lead the government through a transition period focused on restoring security and creating conditions for elections. Conille, who had previously served briefly as Prime Minister in 2011-2012 and had a career in the United Nations system, was seen as a figure who could command international confidence while bringing development and governance expertise to the role.
Conille’s selection was welcomed by international partners who had been calling for technocratic leadership untainted by the political failures of the Henry era. His UN background and familiarity with international development and humanitarian frameworks gave him credibility with the international institutions whose support Haiti would need for any meaningful recovery.
Haitian civil society organizations expressed cautious welcome for Conille’s appointment while noting the enormous challenges he faced. The security situation remained catastrophically bad. The humanitarian crisis was deepening. The political transition needed to produce elections on a credible timeline. And the transitional council itself contained political actors whose commitment to genuine change was untested.
Conille’s immediate priorities were clear: working with the Kenyan-led security mission to begin restoring safety in at least parts of the capital, managing the humanitarian emergency for millions of displaced and food-insecure Haitians, and establishing the political and institutional conditions needed to organize elections. The tasks were immense and the resources available for addressing them were inadequate, but the transition provided at least the prospect of a different approach than the years of governance failure that had preceded it.