This article analyzes the role of Haitian migration and Haitian transnational engagement in the past 20 years. Shows that dependency on Haitian migrants' economic flows into their country has historically not been met by public policy leveraging these flows and that under the current economic recovery period, opportunistic views aside, it is unrealistic to expect a strategy drastically different from that of the pre-earthquake period.
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., The Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group is one of the few small- and medium-sized enterprise financing organizations currently operating in Haiti. It hopes to incubate independent, locally owned Haitian enterprises that can serve the needs of local communities using appropriate technology. More capital is needed in the country to help establish opportunities for future private-sector investment.
Provides a brief background of Haiti's economic development over the last several decades, along with the status of women's rights and gender-differentiated socioeconomic outcomes. Analyzes how policy neglect of gender equity in Haiti has contributed to failed economic development and identifies ways that other developing countries have successfully incorporated a focus on gender equity in their development strategy, particularly in the face of natural disaster and financial crisis.
Finds that elimination of agricultural import tariffs hurts both agricultural and non-agricultural households, via adverse factor-market effects, but impacts vary substantially by workers' gender and country of origin. Females and Haitian immigrants tend to fare better than Dominican males, and there are ramifications for both market and non-market activities.
Discusses donations made by the US to developing countries. Often companies in the US donate leftover or unwanted merchandise to developing countries, and regularly these are products that the poor in those countries need or can use. Shipping leftover inventory as a donation also hurts the local economies in remote and poorer areas.
Reviews several books which focused on the social and political history of Haiti. Haiti in the New World Order: The Limits of the Democratic Revolution, by Alex Dupuy; Building Peace in Haiti, by Chetan Kumar; Haiti Renewed: Political and Economic Prospects, edited by Robert Rotberg; The Haitian Dilemma: A Case Study in Demographics, Development, and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Ernest Preeg.;
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., Building back a better Haiti will require a radically different approach to education. A combination of improved funding, smart allocation of resources, and use of low-cost modern technology may allow Haiti to leapfrog to significantly higher performance levels.
Argues that the underdevelopment of Dominican social policies reflects the political impact of international migration flows, including both Dominican emigration to the United States and the immigration into the Dominican Republic from neighboring Haiti. These flows have inhibited the development of progressive political actors, including the partisan left and organized labor, and facilitated the adoption of an economic production model that erects additional obstacles to the expansion of the country's social policies.
