Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

Jeffrey D Sachs is the Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. His last Webdiary piece was Development aid for development's sake.

by Jeffrey D Sachs

This spring’s presidential election in Haiti sadly re-enforced the country’s blighted reputation. The paradox is that today Haiti has a chance, perhaps the best in its modern history, to escape from its long history of extreme poverty and turmoil.

A mere one-hour flight from Miami, the country struggles with poverty levels akin to the poorest parts of sub-Saharan Africa. But, whereas many parts of the world are extremely poor because of their isolation, Haiti is extremely poor despite its proximity to the world’s largest market. Now, Haiti can turn its geography into a competitive advantage, but only if the United States helps.

Haiti recalls a famous lament once heard about another US neighbor, Mexico: “So far from God and so close to the United States.” As with Mexico, Haiti’s proximity to the US has cut both ways in its history. Proximity to the US should, of course, be an advantage for exports and attracting investment.

However, proximity has also meant US meddling. Haiti was the second country, after the US, to win its independence from Europe, following a slave rebellion in 1804. But America regarded Haiti as a threat rather than as a colleague in freedom, refusing to extend diplomatic recognition until after the outbreak of the Civil War, which finally brought an end to slavery in the US.

Even after recognition by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, relations remained sour. Haiti was exploited and occasionally occupied by US troops, rather than being regarded as a legitimate partner in trade and diplomacy.

Meanwhile, Haiti’s ecological and demographic conditions posed huge development challenges that have never been overcome. The island is hit regularly by devastating hurricanes. It has been massively deforested, and its soils have been depleted of nutrients. Tropical diseases remain killers to this day.

A devastating economic blow occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, when Europe learned to produce sugar from a temperate zone crop, beets, rather than from tropical sugar cane. World sugar prices collapsed, and Haiti fell into deeper disarray. Extreme poverty bred illiteracy and miserable governance, which in turn intensified hunger, disease, and instability.

Haiti’s recent economic history is marked by a remarkable and tragic downslide since the mid-1980’s, exacerbated by sometimes well-intentioned but typically disastrously executed US diplomacy. In an attempt to push Haiti toward democracy, the US imposed economic sanctions, which crippled Haiti’s fragile and newly emerging export sector, especially apparel and other labor-intensive production. Unemployment soared. Urban violence spiraled.

The US then entered into a destructive 15-year relationship with Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who is massively popular among Haiti’s poor, but distrusted by most of the business sector and many leading US politicians. When Aristide came to power in 2001, the Bush administration cut off most international aid, thereby helping to send the economy into a freefall. Aristide’s government was ousted under highly contested circumstances in 2004.

The newly elected president, Rene Preval, is a highly talented and experienced agronomist, and thus has the perfect background to revive Haiti’s degraded rural economy. With the US market close by, Haiti could achieve a remarkable recovery of exports of horticulture, fruits, and other agricultural products, as well as tourism and light manufactured goods.

The key will be for the new government to provide a sound framework which combines key public investments – roads, power, soil nutrients, improved seed varieties, public health, safe water – with confidence-building outreach to the business community and fruitful relations with the US and other donor countries. This time, the US has a strong interest in cooperating fully to promote economic progress: another round of failure would only provoke chaos, including massive numbers of new refugees to the US.

The gap between Haiti’s performance and its potential is now so large that great gains can be achieved in income levels, farming, health, education, and more. Crop yields are below one ton of cereal per hectare of farmland – far less than half of what is readily achievable if farmers are helped to gain access to fertilisers, improved seeds, and basic infrastructure.

Similarly, health conditions are horrendous, but could be improved dramatically just with immunisation, de-worming, safe water, antibiotics, and anti-malaria bed nets. Community health workers could be trained in a matter of months to extend basic health care throughout rural areas, which could then be better mobilised to fend off the debilitating results of future hurricanes.

On the economic front, Haiti can become a profitable exporter of tropical crops such as groundnuts, mangos, cut flowers, string beans, and bamboo – a source of progress among Haiti’s Caribbean-basin neighbors. Preval’s own hometown has successfully used a modest level of external donor support to create new rural cooperatives to market improved crops. And, with its beautiful beaches and remarkable arts and music, Haiti could once again become a major tourist destination.

Indeed, Haiti can become an inspiration for many other fragile and impoverished new democracies. The US, France, Canada, and other major donor countries must not miss this historic opportunity to give vital help to Preval’s democratically elected new government.