Advancing Community Engagement through the Social Accountability Approach in Haiti

Haiti is facing a severe humanitarian crisis driven by political instability, recurrent natural disasters, and escalating violence, resulting in widespread food insecurity. These conditions have triggered large-scale displacement, with the number of internally displaced persons tripling from 315,000 in December 2023 to over 1.4 million by September 2025. Throughout 2025, living conditions further deteriorated as armed groups targeted neighbourhoods, leading to frequent looting and the destruction of homes and health facilities. The crisis has also eroded social cohesion, deepening divisions between communities and fostering fear, loss of belonging, and limited ownership over living spaces. In 2025, an estimated one in two Haitians experienced acute food insecurity.

In 2021, the Concern Haiti Country Programme made a strategic commitment to embed the Social Accountability approach into its programming, recognising its potential to transform how communities engage with governance structures and service providers. This commitment led to intentional efforts to build staff capacity in the approach and to strengthen the role of project participants as collaborators and agents of change.

This learning paper presents how the approach is being used in Haiti, including key activities, lessons learned and recommendations.