Images from the world’s most failed states: Day 5 of 30

A streak of terrible luck pushed Haiti up in the rankings this year. An earthquake in January 2010 flattened the country, leaving tens of thousands dead, including 20 percent of the country’s civil servants. The international aid effort to rebuild the country was poorly coordinated; it also largely circumvented a government in desperate need of bolstering. Billions of dollars in promised aid, including $732.5 million from the U.S. government, was slow to arrive.

Still reeling from the disaster, Haiti held a presidential contest in November (with a runoff this March) that saw the election of musician Michel Martelly, known better as “Sweet Micky.” Among the new president’s many challenges will be convincing the more than 1 million Haitians still living in tent camps to return home. Here, a young Haitian boy begs near the cathedral in the capital, Port-au-Prince.