Haiti needs champions to help poorest of the poor

Written by Larry Ladell

The Ottawa Citizen

Thirty years ago, Bangladesh was considered beyond redemption. Like Haiti, it is a nation prone to environmental catastrophe, situated in the Ganges delta with seasonal monsoons and hurricanes, low elevation and upland deforestation which make it subject to regular flooding of most of its land.

In the midst of its environmental devastation, poverty and death rates in Bangladesh were among the highest in the world in the 1980s. Yet today, Bangladesh has reached a new watershed. Under-five child mortality has plummeted to less than 60 from above 200 per thousand in 1980.

Gender parity has already been achieved in both primary and secondary schools. The fertility rate has fallen to two from more than six in 1980.

What has made the difference? Look wherever you might, but you cannot ignore the impact of micro-lending, which is focused not just on the poor, because virtually everyone in Bangladesh is poor, but on the poorest of the poor, the destitute women of this Islamic nation. By making loans so small they can only be considered micro to women with absolutely no collateral, Dr. Mohammed Yunus has transformed whole communities and perhaps the nation itself.

Given access to financial resources and the support of their peers, the poor create their own livelihoods, and are better able to care for and

educate their children. Dr. Yunus’ bank, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, long ago became self-sustaining as its borrowers became savers. In 2006, Dr. Yunus won the Nobel Prize for his efforts.

All Haiti needs are similar champions of the poorest. Dr. Yunus has already laid out the blueprint. Perhaps with its renewed focus on Haiti, the Canadian International Development Agency will now have the opportunity and resources to find him or her. Fortunately for CIDA, underfunded Grameen-style banks like Fonkoze already exist in Haiti so the search shouldn’t be too difficult.

Although the administrative cost is doubtless greater, microloans need to go primarily to those who are most poor. If so, it may not even take a generation to transform Haiti, like Bangladesh, from the bottom up, into a nation of promise.

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