Rate of extreme poverty declining in Haiti

Updated March 21, 2015 10:00 AM

Long touted as the region's poorest country, Haiti has been riding a steady wave out of extreme poverty for the past few years and is now slowly seeing the fruits of the effort. The report from the World Bank shows that the country of 10 million people, while seeing its fortune change even on the heels of numerous, crippling natural disasters, still has more than half of its population too poor to meet the most basic need for food. A staggering 2.5 million of this number are even reported to be under the line of extreme poverty.

The report titled Haiti: Investing in people to fight poverty, is the first appraisal of the country since the 2010 earthquake. Though recently published, the results were gathered from a survey of households taken in 2012, which focused on the changes in people's lives since the start of the new millennium.

Today, the statistics show that nearly 60% of Haitians subsist on $2 USD per day, and this poverty is juxtaposed with the extreme wealth of 20% of the households in the country which represent 64% of the country's total income.

The economic headway being seen, according to the report, can be linked to foreign aid activity following the earthquake. Eager to help, Haiti's neighbors and diaspora members were quick to send remittances. This, coupled with a more serious look at construction, allowing for increases in the pay for these jobs, allowed the economy to begin thriving. According to analysts of the World Bank, the onus is now on the government to ensure this upward trend continues.

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Rate of extreme poverty declining in Haiti

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