The United States government’s Haiti assistance strategy established a framework to facilitate Haiti’s recovery from the powerful 2010 earthquake. The strategy addressed reconstruction and the country’s geographic diversification of its economic activity, in order to mitigate the risk of highly concentrated economic activity in a single large city and to consider population migrations. USAID defined four economic corridors to focus development assistance that ultimately would create a sustainable economic and institutional environment, one of which is the Cap Haitien Corridor. USAID, in collaboration with other donors, aimed to improve port operations and capacity at the port of Cap Haitien as a short to mid-term solution until cargo growth was sufficient to warrant investment in expanded or new infrastructure. Accordingly, USAID sought technical assistance and advisory services from Nathan to support Cap Haitien project planning and design efforts.

Nathan’s technical assistance and advisory services included the following areas:

• Operational analysis, facility review, and assessment of options for Cap Haitien improvements
• Economic and financial analysis including tariff benchmarking and analysis
• Independent engineering services
• PPP strategy development, implementation, and transaction advisory for Cap Haitien port
• Institutional and regulatory reform review relative to governance, administration, and regulation of the port sector and concession programs
• Review and support on the PPP transaction including review of the project agreement, key performance indicators, tariffs, and other clauses. Provide support to USAID at the bidders’ conferences
• Customs modernization and performance improvement
• Development of terms of reference for USAID and the port authority.