Haiti sees Drop in Poverty Rates

According to a new World Bank report, the rate of extreme poverty in Haiti is declining.

The report is the first post-earthquake assessment of poverty in Haiti and was conducted in partnership with the National Observatory on Poverty and Social Exclusion (ONEPS). The results, analysts say, are based on a 2012 household survey and looks at changes since 2000.

Recognizing that the gains were led by increases in foreign aid after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, remittances and better paid construction jobs in Port-au-Prince, Bank analysts say the challenge today is ensuring that they lasts. They are calling on the Haitian government to provide more inclusive and efficient government policies to help improve better access to basic services, income opportunities and social protection.

“Almost 60 percent of the population live on $2 a day and the richest 20 percent of households hold 64 percent of the total income in the country,” the Bank said. “These levels of income inequality place Haiti among the most unequal countries in Latin America and in the world.”

After a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook the ground on Jan. 12, 2010, nongovernmental organizations flew in to Port-au-Prince and camped inside tattered tent cities in the capital and surrounding cities while more than 50 foreign governments and international organizations sent representatives to New York to pledged $5.3 billion over the next two years at a United Nations donors conference to help rebuild Haiti.

As a result, many Haitians for the first time had access to potable water and sanitation, and the collapse of buildings and investments in new construction, meant jobs.

All of this, along with growth in telecommunications and transport jobs, have helped the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area see a drop in its extreme poverty level from 20 percent to five percent compared to 24 percent nationwide in 2012 from a high of 31 percent in 2000.