•    Population - 9,801,664 (July 2012 est.)
•    Life expectancy – 62
•    Median age – 21
•    Literacy – 53%
•    Labor force – 38% in agriculture
•    Unemployment – 41%
•    80% below poverty line
•    Inflation – 9.3%

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Its people also cope with the vagaries of the weather at regular intervals, with flooding and winds destroying livelihoods, possessions and any hope of a more secure future. More than 316,000 died and another 300,000 were injured in the massive earthquake of 2010, which also left a million people homeless. Rebuilding efforts are ongoing, but progress is slow.

Origins: From 1981 to the mid-1990s, MEDA had an office in Haiti and pursued a variety of business-focused projects in both agriculture and financial services. MEDA has since provided investment and advisory services to Haiti's largest MFI, Fonkoze Financial Services (SFF) - an institution offering a range of valuable financial services to rural populations - through women-focused programming.

MEDA's current involvement in Haiti focuses on governance support as a member of SFF's board of directors. MEDA also supports the Fonkoze Foundation, implementing a large-scale project to expand Fonkoze's program for the ultra-poor and provide post-earthquake infrastructure support. MEDA also has recently provided a series of short consultancies to development actors in Haiti in the areas of value chain development, business plan creation, and institutional capacity building.