Haiti: Poverty Challenge - Essay Example

Haiti: Poverty Challenge Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere as well as one of the poorest in the world; its per capita income is significantly lower than even a tenth of the Latin American average. It is estimated that over 80% of the nation’s populations are well below the poverty line of a dollar a day; only a fifth of the population has access to clean water and majority of the children have not been vaccinated against any disease let alone have access to educational facilities. Far from improving, the deplorable situation has over the course of the last few decades been deteriorating because of a variety of social, political and natural factors. After the 2010 earthquake in which over 200,000 people were killed, the situation escalated to unprecedented levels and the global community once again rose to the occasion to provide food and humanitarian aid to the devastated country. While these actions were laudable, they have seemingly made an already bad situation worse by turning Haiti into what is popularly referred to as an NGO nation. It is ironic that those who sought to alleviate the problems of perennial poverty, vulnerability to natural disaster, poor infrastructure and health have ended up providing the services themselves but the country remains only slightly better off for their presence. The objective of this paper is to explore the challenge of poverty that has ravaged Haiti for the last few decades in the context of the ineffective foreign aid and attempt to propose solutions that can bring about lasting change. In the last decade, more Aid has been poured to Haiti than any other nation in the world with billions been sunk in by foreign governments and donors, which begs the question, what is wrong with the approach being used to provide assistance (Buss 48). Haiti is referred to as the Republic of NGOs and it is with good reason, because of the limited capacity of the national government and weak institutions, NGOs created a quasi-private state within the state. Studies have shown that after the earthquake in 2010, NGOs provided 70% of the national healthcare while 85% of the private schools were also NGO run. This has resulted in myriad challenges for the government since it has been essentially outmaneuvered and given that it is under little pressure to provide services. It has slacked and continued to become weaker wrought with internal wrangles as politicians struggle to control the small amount of aid that comes into their hands. In the quest to understanding the situation of poverty in Haiti, one will need briefly to consider the history of the island nation. Even before the earthquake, Haiti was still struggling to feed and provide shelter for its population of 10 million. Over a tenth of that population was reliant on foreign food aid and the capital was quickly turning into a shantytown filled with unemployed people who migrated from the rural areas (Smith). Ironically, under the French rule in the 18th century Haiti was the richest nation in the western hemisphere, the same it currently occupies the top position in the poverty index. After the slave revolt that made it the first new world country to abolish slavery, its fortunes gradually ebbed after decades of American occupation corrupt regimes, the HIV scrounge and natural disasters (Kidder 300). In many ways, poverty and foreign aid have been working together to create a vicious cycle that has kept the people perpetually trapped in a poverty trap with no means of extricating themselves. The fact that the people have depended on food aid for over a decade has had a detrimental effect on the agricultural sector since many farmers have been driven out of business. Numerous local industries have collapsed or lost hope of resurrecting post the earthquake since NGOs provide better ones free. There has also been a challenge of brain drain; with the NGO “republic” alongside the now weak and almost irrelevant government in terms of development, the few elites have abandoned employment in the government of even private sector for the well-paying NGO jobs (Buss and Adam 173). As a result, NGOs have been growing while the economy itself keeps deteriorating, in fact without NGOs, Haiti would not currently be able to provide education or even infrastructure for its citizens. One of the proposed solutions for the problem is for NGOs to involve the government or at least the people of Haiti in their development plans and agenda (Balding). Instead of channeling aid to autonomous private institutions, they should focus on strengthening the already existing albeit impoverished public ones. For example, the agriculture sector is at the crux of the problem since food insecurity is easily the most critical issue in Haiti. The funding allocated for food aid in the last five years may have been enough to resuscitate or at least improve the agricultural sector and therefore give more power to the people in controlling their fate. Then NGOs should focus more on providing hybrid seeds and farm machinery as well as educating the farmers rather than coming up with more efficient ways of distributing food aid. Considering the severely limited capacity of the government, refocusing its role in critical areas or the country’s operation is urgent. There needs to be emphasis on maintaining public order and security, economic stability, as well as modernizing the central bank and the Haitian Police force. With a more effective government, efforts from both the private sector and NGOs can be managed and directed with a comprehensive outlook that will result in their being effective in solving both long and short-term problems. Additionally, the macroeconomic stability in the nation needs to be stabilized to reduce distortions and allow the private sector to contribute in production. Propping up private investment is a key element in providing the reinforcements of Haiti’s future economic development and one of the first steps should be the capitalization of various sectors such as power water and transport (Bowen 154). By placing power in the hands of locals, there will be motivation to study and accumulate capital to provide services and create employment for their compatriots and women. While conceding that NGOs have contributed to the dependency that is driving poverty in Haiti, the government also has had a role in the same through poor management policies and corruption. Therefore, government institutions must be revamped with emphasis to accountability on public spending and raise the level of human capital. There should be a more comprehensive framework in education, farming and healthcare with a reliable regulatory framework to coordinate such services. The very impoverished more so in the rural areas should be prioritized in provision of services such as medical health and education so the vicious cycle of poverty can be addressed from the grassroots. In conclusion, it is self-evident that the problem of poverty and the myriad other problems that develop around it are not been sufficiently addressed by the measures that are currently being applied. The billions of donor funds and thousands of NGOs in the country may be alleviating some of the symptoms but the fact that they are not directed towards sustainable solutions make them potentially retrogressive. That the people of Haiti need aid is not equivocal, nonetheless, they also need functioning institutions and a vibrant self-driven economy that they can use to create jobs for themselves and rebuild their country. The solution to Haiti’s problems ultimately lies with the people and no amount of outside assistance will fix them unless the very people who are supposed to receive help direct them. Therefore, unless the long-term issues of governance, economy and most importantly the agricultural sector are addressed, Haiti will remain perennially dependent and poor with the influx of foreign aid only fueling the vicious poverty cycle. Works Cited Balding, Justin. 2014. Aid worker proposes solution to break Haitis vicious cycle of poverty. NBC News. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/14/16967471-aid-worker-proposes-solution-to-break-haitis-vicious-cycle-of-poverty?lite Bowen, Glenn A. "The challenges of poverty and social welfare in the Caribbean." International Journal of Social Welfare 16.2 (2007): 150-158. Buss, Terry F. Haiti in the balance: why foreign aid has failed and what we can do about it. Brookings Institution Press, 2009. Buss, Terry F., and Adam Gardner. "Why Foreign Aid to Haiti Failed–and How to Do It Better Next Time." Louis A. Picard, RobertGroselsema, and Terry F. Buss, eds., Foreign Aid and Foreign Policy: Lessons for the Next Half-Century (2005): 173. Smith, Fragala K. “Reasons Behind Haiti’s Poverty” NewsWeek. 2010. Web. 22 Sep. 2014 Kidder, Tracy. Mountains beyond mountains. New York: Random House LLC, 2009. Print. Read More