Haiti: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper; IMF Country Report 08/115 ...

of electricity and developing telecommunications services; and (v) promoting greater social
equity through education and health, which will constitute the main approach to reducing poverty
and inequality during the period.
64 The education strategy will emphasize: (i) reorganizing access to schools in a way that benefits
poor children; (ii) retraining teachers and school principals; (iii) guiding schools, teachers, and
parents more effectively; and (iv) improving coordination among operators in the sector and the
regulation of the system.
65 The health strategy seeks to give priority to: (i) strengthening municipal health units [Unité
Communale de Santé, UCS]; (ii) focusing on endemic illnesses; (iii) strengthening governance of
the sector; and (iv) developing human resources and implementing a hospital management policy.
Second Phase
Strengthening Progress and Taking Systematic Advantage of the Main Identified Opportunities
66 This phase will begin at the start of FY 2009-2010. The main focus of this phase will be on
striving for accelerated growth and greater control over social development. Consequently, the
emphasis during this phase will be on reducing both monetary and human poverty. Once severe
constraints are lifted owing to the progress made during the first phase, a more optimistic growth
scenario can be expected - strong trend growth of 7.5 percent until 2015 (two and a half times the
growth rate in the 1970s) and a decrease in the fertility rate, falling to two or three children per
family instead of the big families that are now commonplace.
67 The macroeconomic framework will be reoriented to make it more attractive to the other
economic sectors where potential can be more easily used, such as the highly promising areas of
the agricultural sector, agro-industry, tourism, and the textile sector of the manufacturing
industry, which will benefit if they are accorded priority. In such a context, the Central Bank
should no longer focus solely on reducing inflation. During this second phase of the social and
economic development strategy, it should also focus on growth and job creation.
68 In a bid to foster a rapid increase in productivity, an important factor in competitiveness in this
globalized world, targeted and cross-cutting sectoral policies will be aimed at developing
appropriate services while contributing to the establishment of a completely reformed business
environment.
69 The earlier effort to overhaul basic infrastructure will continue in the areas of drinking water and
sanitation, among others. At the same time, the Government will forge ahead with its effort to
modernize the educational and health systems, and will set as a priority objective the provision of
more accessible and better quality services to the population as a whole and in particular to
vulnerable groups. Taking into account the difficulty in identifying significant savings and
investment resources within a limited timeframe while great pressures are being felt (for example,
to create widespread employment in a context of growing competition from the Dominican
Republic), one of the strategies for creating the markets that will support the new Haitian
economy will be to develop several growth hubs around targeted groups of activities that are
specific to each zone identified. These hubs could serve as a powerful stimulant to growth
acceleration in Haiti.
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