Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic: The Economy
assistance level averaged US$81 million a year for the decade
from 1980 through 1989.
The 1990s brought a significant shift of emphasis in USAID's
program priorities and strategic plans. USAID's heavy emphasis
on development assistance in the 1980s gradually but consistently
decreased over the years, dropping from a high of
US$34.6 million in 1980 to US$18 million in 1990 to US$11
million in 1997. For a number of years, development assistance
was reinforced by substantial Economic Support Funds (ESF)
and Public Law-480 (PL-480—see Glossary) food aid programs.
It appeared that USAID concern over the Dominican
Republic's overwhelming incidence of poverty, continuing lack
of economic opportunity, and social injustice led the agency to
reallocate its reduced funding toward support for social-sector
activities. Health and education programs, for example,
accounted for 67 percent of its 1996 resources.
In outlining its five-year strategic plan for 1997-2000, USAID
makes the point that "after years of keeping its distance from
the government and implementing activities primarily through
local NGOs (nongovernmental organizations)," one aim of its
latest plan is to strengthen cooperative relations with the government
in order to address long-neglected social sectors and
deal with poverty issues. The country's rampant poverty (the
poorest 50 percent of the population receives less than 20 percent
of total income, while the richest 10 percent receives 42
percent) is caused and exacerbated by poor governance, social
injustice, and extremely low social spending. Dominican public
social investment is much lower than world and Latin American
averages. USAID success in working directly with NGOs
seems to have encouraged other donors to turn to the same
organizations to help fill gaps in public services such as health,
family planning, and acquired immune deficiency syndrome
(AIDS) prevention. USAID's renewed cooperative relationship
with such government agencies as the Secretariat of State for
Public Health and Social Welfare and the Technical Secretariat
of the Presidency and its Planning Office should strengthen its
posture as a catalyst vis-a-vis other donors and result in better
coordination.
Outlook
The disturbing aspect of the Dominican Republic's economy
is that although its positive growth rate, especially in the 1990s
after the sharp deterioration of the 1970s and 1980s, seems to
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