UN report projects disturbing downward trends in Haiti's health, education, economy

Health, education, the economy and the environment in Haiti are all headed downhill over the next decade, according to a new joint report by the United Nations and the Government, providing an urgent wake-up call for the Western Hemisphere's poorest country and for nations across the world interested in its future.

If present trends continue, 10.5 per cent of the population will be infected by HIV in 2015 and 25 per cent will remain shackled by extreme poverty, and the international donor community needs to make good on its promises of financial support to avert the deterioration.

The report - A Common Vision of Sustainable Development - was researched and written by a team of Haitian and UN experts led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) during the final and most turbulent years of the Aristide Government, ousted in March, but was finished before the hurricane-related tragedy in Gonaïves claimed close to 3,000 lives in September.

"The situation described in the report is already seriously distressing and yet, it doesn't take into account the staggering human and monetary costs which the tragedy in Gonaïves entails for the short and long-term," UNDP Resident Representative to Haiti Adama Guindo said.

"When that is all factored in it becomes evident that Haiti cannot make it on its own and that we must ask for an immediate disbursement of the more than $1 billion promised last July in Washington within the Interim Cooperation Framework," he told the launch ceremony yesterday in Haiti.

"The alarm bells go off with this report," Interim Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue warned. "Haiti cannot go at it alone. The time for action is long past due."

Among the study's findings are:

55 per cent of Haiti's population of over 7.5 million live on less than $1 per day, and the country ranks along with Afghanistan and Somalia with the world's worst daily caloric deficit per inhabitant.One out of every three deaths is a child, and Haiti's rate of 118 deaths per thousand live births for the period is by far the highest in the Western Hemisphere and likely to get worse.The ratio of women dying during childbirth has regressed to the point that it is now the second cause of death for Haitian women; between 1994 and 1995, 457 out of 100,000 women died in childbirth, while from 1999 to 2000 this increased to 523 per 100,000.At current rates of transmission 10.5 per cent of the population will be infected with HIV/AIDS by 2015, compared to 6.31 in 2002 and 4.98 in 1996; 60 per cent to 80 per cent is at risk of exposure to malaria while the incidence of tuberculosis is endemic and today is the sixth-largest cause of death.Erosion threatens a quarter of Haiti's territory; between 1987 and 2000, forest areas diminished by half, to 4 per cent from 9 per cent.More than 21 per cent of children ages 6 to 9 do not go to school at all - they are deemed too young to walk alone the distances of several kilometres to and from school; only 15 per cent of teachers meet the academic requirements to teach.