Index that does not fully describe the dimension of poverty in the Dominican Republic

The statistical signal presented as positive to refer to monetary poverty (2024) as having fallen to 20.8%, 3.6% less than in the previous period, has as its counterpart a national context in which meeting growing subsistence needs and raising the quality of life are goals that do not refer exclusively to income levels and pose challenges to a large sector of the population. It would be necessary for the State to overcome institutional and structural weaknesses that have diminished its responses to demands for services and to promote the expansion of welfare that, due to insufficient, force out-of-pocket expenses that erode wage gains. It is likely that there are fewer poor people but only in appearance.

This was stated just last Thursday in the editorial of the daily newspaper Diario Libre: “The improvement of the economy and the palpable macroeconomic stability should be reflected in a lower dependence on citizens’ social assistance. However, the numbers indicate that this is not happening.” And something else (we add): no matter how much it intends to fill gaps in the burden that poverty represents, there is not much that the State can do that borrows even to pay interest and that last year slammed the door on the urgency of raising taxation to save it from its own “real poverty.”

And Listín Diario reaffirmed it almost simultaneously: “In fact, out-of-pocket health expenses, even with the support of the health system, are still high and may be unattainable for many families, especially those with limited resources.”

This editorial position was assumed as a demand that the Ministry of Health not limit itself to facilitating access to services and food for families of children with cancer and cover “other vulnerable groups that also face serious health conditions and that require comprehensive accompaniment.” An essential help (we add) to be able to affirm that poverty is decreasing.

When conceptualizing what it is to survive without resources, the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, explained that from a new perspective, poverty is considered as the lack that affects people to develop their capacities for better living conditions at a minimum acceptable level. And he adds: “The reference to poverty is no longer income or income but the process by which people achieve or do not achieve well-being.”

WHAT UNICEF SAYS

The UN agency that watches over children’s rights said just last year that “despite the economic growth of the Dominican Republic, inequality affects thousands of children and their families. The child poverty rate in the country is 34% and in some parts of the southwest region it reaches 59.4%. It is estimated that 6% of children live in extreme monetary poverty.” It must be presumed that a state of similar calamity overwhelms minors located at some higher levels on the income scale of the Dominican population. Certain mediocrity in living conditions and survival does not take away the seal of poverty from anyone.

The agency established that many families do not have adequate resources to feed their children and the most vulnerable are children under 5 years of age, pregnant women and lactators who can suffer serious consequences, even death, if they are not treated. In 2023, 3% of children under 5 years of age in the country suffered from acute malnutrition, while 7% remained at risk. Listen carefully: the most vulnerable 20% of the Dominican child population, which is served by malnutrition prevention programs, is at risk of moderate to high malnutrition. That 20% compares disastrously with the other 20% to which poverty has supposedly been reduced in the country.

LITTLE PROGRESS

It is considered logical that the concept of poverty should be reformulated based on the definition adopted by the UNDP cited above: “If human development consists of expanding options, poverty means that the most fundamental opportunities and options of human development are denied; to live a long, healthy and creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, respect for oneself and others. The contrast between human development and human poverty reflects two different ways of evaluating development.”

The multilateral agency assumed the definition of poverty as a relative concept, as a process rather than as a result; with a multidimensional content. “The poverty of a life is based not only on the impoverished situation in which the person actually lives, but also on the lack of real opportunity, determined by social limitations and personal circumstances, to live a valuable and valued life.”

Dominican society seems to be at a crossroads in which the economy is growing and macroeconomic stability continues to be a key pillar, but the welfare capacity of the State, which alleviates shortages, but does not motivate the poor to improve themselves productively, is at risk because of something that economist Magín Díaz recently pointed out by worrying about the withdrawal of the bill to improve taxation. He understands that “a fiscal reform is needed soon to avoid pressures on public spending and government investment.” That which should be aimed at improving living conditions massively.

The reduction of poverty as a priority goal is against the informality of the labor market, which exceeds 50%. In the same order, Díaz highlighted “the uncertainty in mining, the main economic engine of the Sánchez Ramírez province. Barrick Pueblo Viejo has generated US$1.4 billion in annual exports and more than 3,000 jobs, but without the new tailing dam its operation could not extend beyond 2030, which could affect the local economy.” And by domino effect, the country in a general sense, including human development.

LOW PRODUCTIVITY

When the Venezuelan economist linked to higher education, Samuel Freije, was once asked to conceptualize the consequences of informal employment in the region, he stressed that informal workers – who in the Dominican Republic constitute a deplorable majority of 56% – said that it is a labor factor that generates little capital and with it the performance of productive activities stagnates.

“As the informal sector grows, so do the poverty and inequality associated with the sector, which makes the objective of economic development even more distant” In short, given the high percentage of marginal labor that exists in the Dominican Republic, it could be said that this country qualifies, at least partially, to be defined as a “manufacturer of poverty” in which a part of its marginalized human resources and located in the production of artisanal goods and primary services represent an important fraction of its collectivity.

The reason for so much labor force escaping regulations and legal status is explained academically: On the one hand, because of ineffective rules and regulations in some economies such as the Dominican Republic, and because of uneven macroeconomic results: “The lack of social protection and low productivity are the consequences that workers who are engaged in informal activities must face.” There is no doubt that they are multipliers of poverty.