Putting Women at the Center of Building Back Better in Haiti

Abstract

The challenges of rebuilding Haiti are enormous: millions are without housing, access to clean water, sanitation, transportation, or energy; the infrastructure is nonexistent; tons of rubble still lie in the streets. The challenges are compounded by the dire situation in Haiti before the earthquake, with more than half the population already living in destitution. Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, has a GDP per capita of about $1,300, less than half that of Nicaragua ($2,800), the second-poorest nation in the hemisphere. 1 Illiteracy hovers around 50 percent, 2 and infant mortality in 2009 was almost 60 deaths per 1,000 live births—the worst statistics in the hemisphere. 3 The lofty commitments made in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake have in too many instances encountered the hard reality of implementation, and progress is painfully slow. Today, more than eight months after the earthquake, a million Haitians are living in tent cities, surrounded by mud and disease. Still, there is hope that a better Haiti can be built back out of the rubble. Achieving this will require not only immediate short-term fixes to get the country