Institutional conditions, sustainable energy, and the UN sustainable development discourse: A focus on Haiti

Abstract

The achievement of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) necessitates quality government institutions and effective government intervention and also the genuine engagement of institutional stakeholders (e.g., NGOs, civil society organizations) and businesses alike. This study seeks to provide supportive evidence that the UN sustainable development goals, Goal 7 (Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all) in particular, are unrealistic within the institutional conditions of Haiti. To this end, we explore the trends in worldwide governance indicators, corruption perception index, human development index, socioeconomic sustainability, gross domestic product, and environmental performance index of Haiti using datasets spanning from 2002 to 2017. We also explore the trends in energy use, electric power consumption, and fossil fuel energy consumption of Haiti using datasets from 1994 to 2014. The results show disappointing trends in all these indicators, indicating the persistence of ill-governance and corruption as well as severe social, economic, and environmental problems. Particularly, the negative trends in the worldwide governance indicators such as government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, and control of corruption) provide substantial evidence that Haiti’s institutional conditions are too weak to support the achievement of the SDGs, deployment of renewable energy in our case. Moreover, the absence of the political will to curtail corruption and the willingness of the elites of Haiti to maintain the status quo of the chaotic socio-economic and institutional conditions upon which their wealth has been built make the SDGs even more unrealistic. We advocate for conscious efforts and sacrifices by the elites to get Haiti out of its current chaotic socio-economic and institutional conditions. Thereby, we outline the need for effective government intervention to facilitate institutional reforms and market reform and also the genuine engagement of the elites and institutional stakeholders in sustainable development discourse.