(Kehitys Utveckling 2-2002 - Juhani Artto) In the 1980s Haiti’s official per capita GNP fell by 2.1 per cent annually, and in the 1990s by an average of 2.7 per cent. However, the preliminary results of a UNDP household survey reflect significant social progress since the 1970s. The literacy rate has increased, the death rate and underweight rates have fallen and the availability of potable water has improved.

There are obvious factors explaining the disparity between these economic and social indicators. Haitians have large incomes that are not included in the GNP calculation. These derive from drug trafficking from Columbia to Florida, and from the two million Haitians living in the USA and Canada. Haiti also received massive amounts of foreign aid during the 1990s. Now this aid is frozen, however, because of the country’s political cul-de-sac and because of widespread corruption.

Haiti offers an example of a country that has adopted a "development model" which is, despite social progress, fundamentally unsustainable.