Research Paper

Social Work

Poverty In Haiti

[Name]

[Institution]

Social Work

Poverty is one of the social evils the world is trying is to eliminate. People can hardly make their both ends meet while living in poverty and cannot even access the basic amenities of life they are entitled to. Following World War II, the ideological tussle between capitalists and communists have resonated poverty. Social economic order was downplayed by the capitalist economy. Capitalist economy prevails and so does poverty.

In contemporary times, out of 7.53 billion, half of the total world’s population is dealing with this evil. Out of 3 billion, approximately more than 1.3 billion people are living in extreme poverty. A number of countries are dealing with poverty and one of those countries is Haiti. The gap between rich and poor resonated by the capitalist economy can be witnessed in Haiti along with the world at large. (Sletten & Egset, 2004) There is a high poverty rate in Haiti coupled with economic disparity and stagnated GDP growth.

Haiti is classified as the poorest country in the Western hemisphere. Over half of its population i.e. 58.6%, is poor and a quarter of its population i.e. 24.7%, is dealing with extreme poverty. So far as the wealth disparity is concerned then Haiti is placed on the fourth spot for income disparity by CIA World Factbook. Disparity count is calculated on the basis of the Gini coefficient, which is defined as the ratio of highest to lowest income. The high Gini coefficient for Haiti is more the 65%, which reveals the econonomic disparity. The gap between rich and poor is so large that 1% of rich Haitians possess wealth equivalent to 45% of Hatians.

The anatomy of the poverty in Haiti reveals that there is a number of causes for it being the poorest country in a western hemisphere. Following are causes of poverty in Haiti.

• Geography: Haiti is more prone to natural disasters, such as hurricanes and earthquakes, than anyother country in the Western hemisphere.

• Stagnated GDP Growth: The slow GDP growth rate has resonated poverty in Haiti. It has fallen from 1.5% in 2016 to 1.2% in 2017.

• Energy Issues: Unreliability of power is another issue of poverty in Haiti. Their dependency on charcoal and broken electricity are two key issues cited by USAID.

• Political Instability and Poor Leadership: Ever since her independence, Haiti is being led by a poor line of leaders. Their leaders get intoxicated with power once they become leaders. They work for themselves rather than working for poor Haitians.

• Inadequate Education and High Unemployment Rate: Only half of the total children in Haiti attend school, which results in a high unemployment rate.

The consequences of poverty are extreme. Its consequences can be witnessed on all three levels i.e. micro, meso and macro. (Dunlap, Johnson, Kotarba, & Fackler, 2010) Poverty in Haiti has torn the social fabric of Haiti asunder. Low per capita income, stagnated GDP growth, low growth in industrialization, all have been led by the poverty in Haiti. The interactions between micro and macro level have also been deteriorated. This can be termed as meso level. High unemployment, lack of electricity, resonated by poor education. It's only because micro-level consequences are so harsh that it disturbs the whole pyramid of development. No money means no food, no food means high crime rate. The consequences on all three levels are resonated by only one social force or precisely a social evil i.e. poverty.

Poverty reduction strategy paper by IMF suggests certain steps to deal with poverty in Haiti. The action plan includes the following measure suggested by the IMF report. (International Monetary Fund, 2009)

• Territorial rebuilding.

• Economic rebuilding.

• Social rebuilding.

• Institutional rebuilding.

Certain developments have also been witnessed in the suggested measures but there is more to cope with. It is high time that world joined their hands and pull people out of misery and deal with this menace the humanity is witnessing in contemporary time. The people living in poverty are looking towards us to save them. We are duty bound to save humanity and pull Haitians out of this gloom.

Reference

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Dunlap, E., Johnson, B. D., Kotarba, J. A., & Fackler, J. L. (2010). Macro-level social forces and micro-level consequences: poverty, alternate occupations, and drug dealing. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse, 9(2), 115–127.

International Monetary Fund. (2009). Haiti: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Progress Report. IMF Staff Country Reports, 09(290), 1. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451817799.002

Sletten, P., & Egset, W. (2004). Poverty in Haiti (Vol. 31). Fafo.