In the late 1970s, Haiti’s rural population was 80 percent of the total population, while today it is 55 percent. This rapid shift has led to Haiti being “terribly out-of-balance” as Robert Maguire testified (PDF transcript) before the Subcommittee on International Development, Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs and International Environmental Protection of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on Feb. 4.
Robert Maguire is associate professor of international affairs and director of the Haiti Program at Trinity College in Washington, D.C., and Jennings Randolph senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace. He first went to Haiti in 1974. His most recent visit ended on January 10, 2010, two days before the earthquake occurred.
In his testimony, Maguire laid out five points:
- Decentralization: help people displaced from Port-au-Prince to stay in rural areas
- Create a National Civic Service Corps
- Strengthen state institutions through partnership
- Get money into the hands of poor people
- Support institutions, businesses, and leaders who work toward inclusion, less social inequality, and socially responsible investment strategies
Image: “Rural life is hard work,” a scene of rural Haiti. Creative commons licensed content by Flickr user danboarder.
anthropologyworks 