Income

Based on the 2001 HLCS, most departments have essentially equal populations of “extremely poor” people (individuals living on less than US$1 per day), varying between 62 and 72 percent (Figure 1). The only exception by Department were the West and the North East. The West is skewed  by metropolitan Port-au-Prince (see Figure 2), by all measures an outlier with respect to the rest of Haiti. The North East with 84 percent of its population extremely poor is arguably not the exception it appears because at the time of data collection 67% of Haiti’s rural population was extremely poor and the North East was, at that time, the least urbanized Department in Haiti. In other words, with the exception of the Department of the West where Port-au-Prince is located, the proportion of the rural and urban population that is extremely poor appears to be essentially the same in all of Haiti’s 10 Departments.

 

 

Assets

Based on durable goods (assets), the Genie Coefficient is as an estimation of wealth distribution (a value of 01 indicates egalitarian distribution and 100 total inequality). Once again, with the exception of the Department of the West where Port-au-Prince is located, all the departments rate in the narrow range between 37 to 43 points (see Figure 3; based on the 2012 EMMUS sample of 13,388 households). In other words, the level of equality in distribution of wealth is essentially the same throughout the country’s 10 Departments.[i]

 

Food Availability and Variation

Variation among Departments regarding months of food scarcity is minimal (Figure 4). Even variation among ecological zones yield small differences (Figure 5). CNSA found that from October 2006 to September 2007 the population of households reporting insufficient alimentation in six ecological-occupational zones fluctuated between highs of 52% and 64% for each zone to lows of 15 to 36 percent;  all tended to have the same lean months and the same months of plenty with the one notable exception that agricultural mountain humid, agro-pastoral semi-humid, and agro-pastoral plateau tended to have lower stress during the Autumn months than agro-pastoral dry, mono-cultural plain, and dry agricultural and fishing. Similarly, WFP’s Coping Strategy Index (CSI) (see Figure 5), a 0 to 64-point measure of food deprivation and rationing varies between 20.8 for coastal dry and 24 for Agro-Pastoral Dry, a fluctuation small enough to be attributed to natural sampling error (Figure 6: Wiesmann et al. 2009 for an explanation of CSI).

Shocks from Natural Disasters and Internal Household Crisis

The same equality between departments and ecological zones is true for both shocks from natural disasters as well as internal household crisis (Figure 7).

 

Education

Excepting metropolitan Port-au-Prince, even proportion of adult population that have never been to school is largely equal from one Department to another (Figure 8) as is children in school (Figure 9).

Nutrition

And once again, with the exception of the Port-au-Prince metro area, nutritional status varies little from one Department to another, as can be seen from data on adult nutritional status (Figure 9) as well as child nutritional status (Figure 10).

Other Indicators

In the ENSA (2011) and CFSVA (2007) surveys the same general pattern of homogeneity between departments and ecological zones seen above can be found with respect to,

• proportion of income spent on food
• consumption scores
• dependence on markets vs. auto-consumption
• indices of durable goods
• education
• types of livelihood strategies
• remittances from within Haiti
• constraints on livestock rearing
• number of different type of livestock per household
• agriculture
• number of parcels owned
• land tenure
• access to services
• intercropping
• use of fertilizers and
• proportion of population engaged in fishing.

To be sure, there are some differences, for example in regional migration patterns, remittances, and slight differences in dependency on agricultural strategies. CNSA/FEWSNET (2009) documented differences in vulnerability and infrastructure at the sub-department level. But the same figures vary by survey, a probable consequence of sampling error;[ii] and they vary by year, a probable consequence of climate variation and differential temporally idiosyncratic shocks.  The variation over time can be seen in nutritional status of children per department (see Figure 10, above); and it can be seen in CNSA/FEWSNET Vulnerability maps (see Figure 12 below).  The variation over time, with extremes of vulnerability moving from department or commune to another raise the question: to what degree are differences observed between households a consequence of temporary impacts? Moreover, differences in one variable are offset by others.  For example, while in the 2007 CFSVA the department of the Artibonite had the lowest educational level and the highest number of food insecure months, it has the greatest availability of household water sources, irrigated land, and one of the highest rural income levels (at 6.4 in the CNSA/CFVSA p55 and Verner 2008:18).  In short, the bulk of the population is uniformly destitute; and advantages in one respect in a particular region are consistently offset by comparatively greater disadvantages in other respects. Even rural urban distinctions can be called into question: the proportion of the population poor in provincial cities and towns vs. those in rural areas are insignificant until one reaches the highest 20% of the population (Figure 3). In summary, if we consider how small the differences in most indicators are between municipal districts and ecological zones, and then we consider change from a longitudinal perspective, the most fantastic thing about geographical profiles in Haiti is the overall homogeneity.

 

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NOTES

[i] In effect, allotting for sampling error, distribution of wealth within Haiti’s 10 Departments is essentially equal for all except the West, where the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince is located (and is substantially lower at 20.1).

[ii] This situation only slightly improved in 1999, as 48.0% were then categorized as poor. In 2001, the HLCS stated that 55.6% of households lived with less than US$1 per day (Echevin 2011: 2)