Is Haiti the poorest country in the world?

Answer 1

Here are excerpts from an article. Links to the entire article are provided below. HAITI: The Challenges of Poverty Reduction

August 1998 Executive Summary What accounts for the dire extent of poverty in Haiti? Over time, numerous observers have given many and diverse answers to this difficult question. This report points to a number of key factors:

Political instability, woefully poor governance, and corruption. Fundamental to the pervasive problem of poverty in Haiti is the long history of political instability and the lack of governance. Corruption and misuse of public funds have resulted in a decline in the quality of all public services, including such fundamental areas of traditional governmental responsibility as the police, the justice system, and the provision of basic infrastructure. While the restoration of democracy in Haiti is a highly welcome development and one which has resulted in some encouraging progress, the basic problems of governance remain and are at the core of the country's poverty problems.

Inadequate growth, a result of distortions at the macroeconomic level and inadequate levels of private investment. The political factors just enumerated have had a severely negative impact on private investment, both domestic and foreign. The investment/GDP ratio in Haiti is only about 10 percent--on the order of one-third, for example, the ratio in Chile. This report estimates that Haiti would require annual growth rates of at least 5 percent to achieve significant progress in poverty reduction. Instead, as noted above, the country has experienced negative growth of about that magnitude in recent years and prospects for meaningful improvement on the growth front are not in sight.

Underinvestment in human capital and the poor quality of the expenditures that are made. In the public sector, still only 20 percent of resources go to rural areas, where approximately two-thirds of the people live. Per capita health spending, both public and private, is about $21, compared to $38 in Sub-Saharan Africa and $202 in Latin America.

A "poverty trap." The interaction of these various factors, including high population growth, produces a downward spiral, a "poverty trap" from which there frequently appears no exit nor hope. Some aspects of that trap discussed in this report include: high unwanted fertility; rampant environmental degradation, especially in rural areas; an increase in crime and violence; systematic abuse of human rights; and outward migration from the country to escape a life of misery. In short, the lack of good governance, the low levels of growth and investment, the lack of attention to basic human needs, and a set of understandable if lamentable behavioral consequences which interact in numerous and complex ways, all with one outcome: an increase in poverty and associated human, physical, social, and environmental degradation. The entire article can be read from the following websites: http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/External/lac/lac.nsf/3af04372e7f23ef6852567d6006b38a3/8479e9126e3537f0852567ea000fa239?OpenDocument http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20207590~menuPK:443285~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

Here are excerpts from an article. Links to the entire article are provided below. HAITI: The Challenges of Poverty Reduction

August 1998 Executive Summary What accounts for the dire extent of poverty in Haiti? Over time, numerous observers have given many and diverse answers to this difficult question. This report points to a number of key factors:

Political instability, woefully poor governance, and corruption. Fundamental to the pervasive problem of poverty in Haiti is the long history of political instability and the lack of governance. Corruption and misuse of public funds have resulted in a decline in the quality of all public services, including such fundamental areas of traditional governmental responsibility as the police, the justice system, and the provision of basic infrastructure. While the restoration of democracy in Haiti is a highly welcome development and one which has resulted in some encouraging progress, the basic problems of governance remain and are at the core of the country's poverty problems.

Inadequate growth, a result of distortions at the macroeconomic level and inadequate levels of private investment. The political factors just enumerated have had a severely negative impact on private investment, both domestic and foreign. The investment/GDP ratio in Haiti is only about 10 percent--on the order of one-third, for example, the ratio in Chile. This report estimates that Haiti would require annual growth rates of at least 5 percent to achieve significant progress in poverty reduction. Instead, as noted above, the country has experienced negative growth of about that magnitude in recent years and prospects for meaningful improvement on the growth front are not in sight.

Underinvestment in human capital and the poor quality of the expenditures that are made. In the public sector, still only 20 percent of resources go to rural areas, where approximately two-thirds of the people live. Per capita health spending, both public and private, is about $21, compared to $38 in Sub-Saharan Africa and $202 in Latin America.

A "poverty trap." The interaction of these various factors, including high population growth, produces a downward spiral, a "poverty trap" from which there frequently appears no exit nor hope. Some aspects of that trap discussed in this report include: high unwanted fertility; rampant environmental degradation, especially in rural areas; an increase in crime and violence; systematic abuse of human rights; and outward migration from the country to escape a life of misery. In short, the lack of good governance, the low levels of growth and investment, the lack of attention to basic human needs, and a set of understandable if lamentable behavioral consequences which interact in numerous and complex ways, all with one outcome: an increase in poverty and associated human, physical, social, and environmental degradation. The entire article can be read from the following websites: http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/External/lac/lac.nsf/3af04372e7f23ef6852567d6006b38a3/8479e9126e3537f0852567ea000fa239?OpenDocument http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20207590~menuPK:443285~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest countries in the developing world. Its per capital income--$ 250--is considerably less than one-tenth the Latin American average. About 80 percent of the rural Haitian population live in poverty. Moreover, far from improving, the poverty situation in Haiti has been deteriorating over the past decade, concomitant with a rate of decline in per capita GNP of 5.2 percent a year over the 1985-95 period. excerpt from: http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:20207590~menuPK:443285~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html

Answer 2

To be technical, Haiti is not the poorest country (at least not in the world). It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere though.

To start off, Haiti began as a French colony. The French imposed slavery and forced Haiti to develop an economy that was based entirely on agriculture. This type of economy is extremely fragile as a natural disaster, such as a drought, or crop disease can ruin the entire economy. When the French left, native Haitians took over and kept their system of forced cheap labor (based in slavery). Current day Haiti has a very small group of elites who have most of the money, while most of the country lives below the poverty line. Once they rebelled against French rule, Haiti had a very hard time starting up as a democratic nation of freed slaves. The US and Europe boycotted sugar cane from Haiti because they felt that a nation of freed slaves set a bad example for the slaves in Europe and the US. Haiti was desperate to be recognized as a nation, so they agreed to pay France a huge amount of money to repay colonizers for the land they lost in the revolution. Haiti accepted the debt of 150 million francs in 1838. They finally finished paying the debt in 1922. On top of the 150 million, they also had to pay millions of francs in interest. To make the situation worse, the US Marines occupies Haiti from 1915 to 1938. They took over almost all government operations and undermined the government that the Haitians had set up for themselves. The government continues to be corrupt to this day. Many foreign organizations have tried to aid the Haitian people, but most of the money that they send to Haiti ends of in the hands of wealthy government elites.

To move on to another topic, soil erosion has become a huge problem in Haiti. Forests were cleared for agriculture and for use as fuel, and once the land had been depleted of all nutrients, the empty plot would be left behind and more forest would be cleared. Now, there are large portions of land covered in soil that has no nutrients and has no plants to hold it in place.

Also, there are very clear distinctions between the upper and lower class that continue to keep most Haitians very poor. First of all, most business and government transactions in Haiti are done in French, and to have a job that makes a decent salary, you must speak French. The problem is that only the elite in Haiti actually speak French. Everyone else speaks Creole. Also, most of the lower class are uneducated and illiterate. Legally, education is free to everyone. In actuality, not everyone has access to government funded schools and only the children of elites can afford to attend college. School is taught only in French, which most lower class children don't speak. Classes are overcrowded and teachers don't have adequate supplies. Only about 2% of children in Haiti continue past the fifth grade. Illiteracy rates are obscenely high.

These are just a few of the many, many issues that Haiti faces. I hope this answer has given you a bit of insight into how Haiti has gotten to where it is now.

Answer 3

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, but it is not the absolute poorest. Factors contributing to its poverty include political instability, natural disasters, and economic challenges.

Answer 4

Yes.