The Issue Of Poverty In Haiti And Its Causes
Poverty is defined as the state of being extremely poor and Haiti is no stranger to this. Haiti has been affected by extreme poverty since it gained its independence from France in 1804 and its economy does not seem to be getting any better anytime soon. Haiti is known to be the poorest country in the western hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the world. Haiti has a population of over 10 million people, according to the CIA, and Vasquez states on his articles that 80% of those Haitians live on less than $2 a day, as of 2010, that’s over 8 million people that make less than $2 daily. Also, Haiti’s population is not slowing down, Haiti is in the third stage in the demographic transition, meaning its population increases a lot. To be more specific, the CIA states that the population’s growth rate was 1. 31% as of 2018. Haiti’s poverty can be mostly blamed on the Duvaliers’ legacy.
Fragala Smith explains that during their regime a lot of educated professors fled the country and after their regime they left Haiti’s economy destroyed and Haiti was extremely unstable the following periods. Also, due to Haiti’s geographic location and current economic state it is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters, like earthquakes, floods, and mainly hurricanes, and more than 96% of the country’s population is exposed to these natural dangers. For some context on how badly Haiti is affected by natural disasters, Haiti was hit by Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and caused loses and damages estimating at 32% of Haiti’s GDP in 2015. Adding on, Haiti is also affected by deforestation. An Oregon State University research found out in 2018 that 42 out of 50 of Haiti’s largest mountains have lost all their forest. This brings consequences such as contributing to climate change and also making natural disasters more chaotic. Forests have been proven to diminish a hurricane’s impact on land. Haiti population is made up of more young people, people under 25 years old, than adults. Young people make up more than 50% of the population, these people have a horrible education and the government does not help either, in 2016 it only spent 2. 4% of their GDP on education purposes.
Women have an even worse education with only 57. 3% of women over 15 years old being able to read and write compared to 64. 3% of men over 15 years old being able to read and write. This is a huge problem since education is always the main reason that can better a country. If Haiti does not better their education their economy and underdevelopment will not get better, or if it does it will be slow. Haiti also suppresses bureaucratic regulations. It is estimated by the World Bank that it takes 195 days and it costs 228 percent of an average income to legally start a business. Hernando de Soto, a Peruvian economist, calculated that 99 percent of Haitian business operate in the shadow economy, such as the black market and undeclared work. Adding on to Haiti’s horrible economy, according to the CIA website, 40. 6% of the workable population is unemployed and 58. 5% of the population is under the poverty line. Haiti has been receiving aid by many different organizations and countries, it is estimated by Vásquez that it has received over $8. 4 billion in foreign aid between 1980 and 2010. Even though Haiti has received so much foreign aid it still poorer than it was 30 years ago. This can be blamed to the worsening economy, the horrible government, and also the devastating natural disasters. Global Aid Network, or GAiN for short, is an independent non-governmental organization that focuses on helping and aiding third world countries, Haiti being one of them.
GAiN works by receiving donations from people, this is how individuals, like ourselves, can help Haiti and other third wortld countries get better. GAiN gives you the option to donate monthly, quarterly, annually or just a one-time donation. The person donating can choose a specific country or cause where they want the money to go, like clean water, disaster relief, among others. Or they can donate money and the organization chooses where the money goes. Most of Haiti’s donations fall into the disaster relief category since, as mentioned earlier, is one of the main reasons that Haiti has such a struggle improving. GAiN makes campaign not targeted to a specific country, instead to a cause that affects many countries. For example: hurricanes, earthquakes and clean water. Most of their campaigns are labeled with titles along the lines of “You can help victims of Hurricane Dorian” or “Thank you for helping Disaster Victims. ” Most of their campaigns are vague at first sight.
