March 19, 2010
The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) issued a draft report, “Sectorial Assessment of Damages, Losses and Requirements.” The report notes that extreme poverty has reached levels not seen in a decade when the level was over 70 percent. According to the 2009 UN Human Development Report the proportion living in extreme poverty in Haiti was 54.9 percent.
The ECLAC report also notes that over 222,000 people died, more than 311,000 were injured, and 15% of the population (1.5 million) are now homeless. ECLAC estimates that the total damages are “more than US$ 7.8 billion, equivalent to over 120% of Haiti’s GDP in 2009.”
