Pro-poor Economic Development Aid to Haiti: Unintended Effects Arising from the ConflictDevelopment Nexus

Abstract

Poverty reduction has been a prominent and critical goal of Haiti's main international donors, yet they have directed little economic aid to rural areas where a large segment of Haiti's poor live and work. Instead, donors have focused on re-establishing a vibrant urban-based manufacturing sector. While sidestepping agriculture is not a new trend, this paper argues that the policy set employed by donors since 2004 – a conflict and development approach that stresses vulnerability to crime and political instability – has served to reinforce the country's historical bias against rural development. While the 2010 earthquake has provided the impetus to decentralise economic activity, it is too soon to know if and how the rural poor will benefit, particularly given continued security-related concerns associated with the capital region.