29932: Leiderman: (news) recent IMF on Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leiderman@mindspring.com


dear Readers:

I don't know whether this recent assessment of Haiti from the International Monetary Fund has been cited on the list, but I just bumped into it at:

www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2006/cr06411.pdf

and recommend it for your reading.

thank you.

Stuart Leiderman
leiderman@mindspring.com

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REPUBLIC OF HAITI
A WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY FOR HAITI
Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
(I-PRSP)
September 27, 2006
 2006 International Monetary Fund  November 2006
IMF Country Report No. 06/411
Haiti: Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

To assist the IMF in evaluating the publication policy, reader comments are invited and may be sent by e-mail to publicationpolicy@imf.org.
Copies of this report are available to the public from International Monetary Fund Publication Services, 700 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20431 ph (202) 623 7430 fx (202) 623 7201
E-mail: publications@imf.org  Internet: http://www.imf.org
Price: $18.00 a copy International Monetary Fund Washington, D.C.

some excerpts:

Since 1986, successive Haitian governments have on several occasions declared the reduction of poverty to be a priority. However, poverty reduction has never been the subject of a systematic policy or of a coherent program with precisely defined measures and objectives. In 2000, the government subscribed to the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). In 2003, the government backed the Integrated Program to Respond to the Urgent Needs of Vulnerable Communities and Populations (PIR) launched by the United Nations. The goal of this program was to provide a coordinated, rapid and targeted response to the urgent needs of a growing portion of the population. However, despite all these initiatives, no realistic path leading to attainment of the MDGs has yet opened up....

22. According to the various assessments undertaken, Haiti stands no chance, with the public policies adopted thus far, of reaching most of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Out of the seven groups of indicators used internationally for measuring progress made, Haiti is likely to meet only two of the Objectives, namely gender equity and the fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases. More troubling is the fact that
instead of poverty reduction in recent years, some indicators, e.g. regarding forest coverage and infant malnutrition, have deteriorated.

23. Still other analysts use a variety of other indicators such as the rate of satisfaction of food needs, which is strikingly low in Haiti. Only 19 percent of the national population and 13 percent of the population in rural areas receive the minimum daily ration defined by the World Health Organization. Another source of figures that should be cited is the Technological Development Indicator (TDI) which measures access to information and the development of new technologies. The TDI was calculated on the
occasion of the Internet Summit organized in Haiti in December 2001: Haiti's score was 0.093, ranking it among "the small group of countries on the margins of technologies..."Â

24. Reducing poverty permanently and significantly first requires study of the causes of poverty. As mentioned above, poverty is evidenced in particular by low incomes and poor access to basic services. Attacking the sources of these weaknesses is the equivalent to attacking the causes of poverty.

25. The above information provides the following lessons: (i) massive investments must be made in order to increase the provision of basic services nationwide, and especially in highly disadvantaged areas; (ii) priority must be given to basic education; (iii) shantytownization and insecurity in urban areas are closely related to rural emigration, itself caused by the non-satisfaction of the primary needs of the population
and the inaccessibility of basic social services; (iv) policies bearing on the distribution of basic services must be structured in the short term around the municipality, since the municipality is the smallest administrative unit having financial autonomy mandated by the constitution and possessing statistical data; (v) the other factor that must be the subject of action if poverty is to be reduced remains the income factor, i.e. productive,
well-paying jobs must be created and farmers and providers of other goods and services must be helped to increase the added value of their production..."

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leiderman@mindspring.com