President Jovenel Moïse appointed Jouthe Joseph as Haiti’s new prime minister in March 2020, the latest in a series of prime ministerial changes that had characterized the Moïse presidency as it struggled to find a governing team capable of managing the country’s multiple crises. Joseph, an agronomist with experience in development organizations, was tasked with forming a government and advancing the president’s agenda in an environment of political fragmentation and mounting humanitarian challenges.
With no parliament to confirm the appointment — the legislature’s mandate had expired in January — Joseph’s designation was another act of executive governance by decree. Opposition groups rejected the legitimacy of the appointment and called for a negotiated political transition rather than the continuation of one-man rule.
Joseph faced an almost impossibly difficult governing environment. The political crisis showed no signs of resolution. The economy was contracting. Gang violence was escalating. And just days after his appointment, the first cases of COVID-19 would be confirmed in Haiti, adding a devastating new dimension to the challenges already overwhelming the country’s weakened institutions.
Observers noted that even the most capable prime minister would have struggled to make headway in Haiti’s 2020 political environment. The question was not whether Joseph had the right credentials but whether any individual could govern effectively in a country without a functioning legislature, a contested executive, and institutions hollowed out by years of political dysfunction.