Dominican Republic Country Information

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Dominican Republic Country Information

• Population - 8,581,477 (July 2001 est.)
• Capitol - Santo Domingo
• Other cities -Santiago de los Caballeros
  (Santiago), La Romana
• Primary Language - Spanish
• Date of Independence -1865
• GDP/capita -purchasing power parity - 5,700
  (2000 est.)
• (has a highly skewed distribution of income,
  approx. two million Dominicans still live in
  poverty)
• Major colonial powers -Spain, France

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Map of the Caribbean
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Map of the Dominican Republic
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Project goal

• To explore the primary factors available to the
  Dominican Republic for its development

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Human Capital as a Factor of Development

• The population of the Dominican Republic, if well
  utilized may bring about significant economic and
  social growth.
• One way of taking advantage of this factor of
  development is through education.

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The accumulation of human capital through
education

• Today, many Dominicans in rural areas are unable
  to obtain a satisfactory tertiary education.
• Those able to achieve higher levels of education
  tend to migrate out of the rural areas leaving
  behind the most disadvantaged, creating in the
  process entrenched pockets of poverty. The
  World Bank Group

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Some figures relating to the state of D.Rs human
capital.

• Pregnancy has become the leading cause of death
  among adolescent girls in the Dominican Republic
  according to the United Nations Population Fund
  (UNFPA). Nearly 25 of girls aged 15 to 19 are
  either pregnant or have already given birth, yet
  access to reproductive health services is limited
  outside the major cities, putting these young
  mothers at risk.
• Public expenditure on education
• As a of GDP 2.2
• As a of total government expenditure 13.8

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Poverty Reduction and Education

• Today, almost 85 of poor household heads have
  not completed primary education.
• Almost 30 of poor household heads have no
  education whatsoever, facing enormous opportunity
  constraints even within a growing economy.
• While the educational attainment of the younger
  generation is higher than that of their parents,
  enrollment in secondary education remains low,
  when compared to other middle income countries.

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Poverty Reduction and Education (Contd)

• Throughout the 1990s the returns on education for
  workers who have only attained primary education
  remain low.
• This trend is likely to continue given the strong
  influx of Haitian immigrants, providing
  low-skilled labor with low reservation wages.
• Significant poverty reduction will involve a
  focus on areas of public policy such as
• education, adequate provision of property rights,
  and family planning.

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EDUCATION

• Structure of the Educational System
• Primary School lasts for 6yrs and is compulsory
• In secondary education two systems are in
  operation
• Traditional System- consists of a 6yr cycle
  divided into a two-year intermediate cycle and a
  four-year second cycle
• Reform system- studies last for six years,
  divided into two cycles. The first cycle (Ciclo
  Básico) is a four-year cycle with an emphasis on
  science. The second cycle (Ciclo Superior) lasts
  for two years and offers a greater choice of
  specializations than the traditional system.

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EDUCATION OVER THE LAST DECADE

• In the last decade, educational reform activities
  in the Dominican Republic have resulted in
  increased enrollments, a reduced dropout rate,
  and greater access to education for low-income
  children. 
• Equity remains a challenge
• Particularly for children in rural areas where
  where grade repetition and drop-out rates are
  higher than in urban areas.

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What does the Dominican Republic need to improve
its education system?

• Increased public and private sector expenditures
  on education
• NOTE Only this month the IDB(Inter-American
  Development Bank) approved an 80 million loan
  for a basic education program in the Dominican
  Republic.
• Purpose of the loan
• -To support the first phase of a program to
  improve equity in basic education in the
  Dominican Republic by focusing on schools and
  students in rural and marginal urban areas.

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Seers Model for Development

• According to Seers, the term development must
  take into consideration 3 factors
• Inequality
• Poverty
• Unemployment
• In the case of the Dominican Republic and the
  Caribbean on a whole, any factors that are
  expected to develop the country or region must,
  according to Seers, have a positive impact on
  these 3 aspects of development.

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Education as it relates to development

• The more educated a countrys people are, the
  brighter its future.
• An educated population attracts FDI (foreign
  direct investment)
• increased investment in education contributes to
  economic efficiency and equity.
• investment in the human capital of the poor is
  one of the most important tools for reducing
  poverty.

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Links between education, women and development

• Educated women have smaller families, fewer of
  their children die in infancy and the children
  who survive are healthier and better educated.
• Educated women are better equipped to enter the
  paid labor force. This is critical to the
  survival of the many female headed households of
  the Caribbean.
• Nations with higher levels of female school
  enrollment in the past, today show higher levels
  of economic productivity, lower fertility, lower
  infant and maternal mortality, and longer life
  expectancy than countries that have not achieved
  as high enrollment levels for girls.

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Are Women a Factor for Development in the
Dominican Republic?

• Gender in the Labor Force
• Women are not educated in technical fields
  related to agriculture and industry
• The men are educated so as to be hired for
  supervisory or professional positions

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Gender in the Labor Force Contd

• Women will earn an income that can and will
  support their children and their husband
• They are not earning wages that can support the
  entire family

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Quote from a Dominican Working Woman

• One woman states I eat lunch the Dominican
  main meal every other day, since I have no
  money besides, who could eat knowing the
  children are home with nothing. I must lock the
  children in the house during the 12 hour
  workday to keep them safe, with no one to look
  after or feed them. My eldest should be in
  school, but she must see to the little ones even
  in my one-room shack the three year old gets in
  trouble. (Interview by Laura Raynolds 20,
  December 1989)

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Gender in the labor force contd

• Although agricultural work is considered to be
  primarily carried out by men, the women who work
  to feed their families see that they are
  fundamentally redrawing the parameters of
  womens work and establishing a potential basis
  for increasing womens economic autonomy.
  (Raynolds)
• In Sun, Sex, and Gold Globalization, Tourism,
  and the International Sex Trade, A number of
  writers have pointed out that despite the
  economic independence of Jamaican Women and
  matrifocality of many households, men are still
  perceived to be the dominant of the sexes (
  Senior 1991, Powell 1986, Moses 1977).
• -This is in comparison to the sex industry
  of Jamaica, but it still reestablishes the idea
  of female and male inequalities.

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Gender in labor force contd

• Women are the primary factor in the work force,
  because they perform most of the labor and yet
  they are not rewarded for their work with higher
  income so they can support their family
• This is a result of Companies profit from
  Dominican patriarchal traditions that limit
  womens alternatives and make them
  disproportionately responsible for home and
  family (Raynolds).

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Gender in the labor force contd.

• The new jobs being created are strictly based on
  gender
• Men are able to have an education they are given
  the professional positions in the work place

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And YES, women do continually work in the labor
force, because

• Their income is restricted
• They are continually having more children, which
  increases the need for what little income they do
  receive
• Women make up most of the agricultural and
  industrial labor forces, without them production
  would be moving at a slower rate

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Womens issues that hamper development.

• Women are constantly victims of Domestic Abuse
• Here are some statistics
• Between November 1st 2000 and October 31st 2001
  104 women were murdered, 62 were murdered by a
  spouse, and 20 of those had been women who
  previously reported domestic violence, but no
  help had been given
• The year before 86 women were murdered
• Murder is the 6th cause of death for Dominican
  women ages 15 to 45
• 1 in 6 homes experience violence
• Due to Domestic violence 80 of women are in who
  need of health care
• 40 to 50 reports of violence are given to the
  Santo Domingo Police Station daily. (In a year
  this totals 10,800 reports)

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Results of the Project

• BUT, as a result of these horrendous statistics
  two major issues have been addressed to create
  new developments for the Dominican Republic
• A project was created resulting in
• The government passing amendments to the
  Dominican Penal Code in 1997
• It also united 4 major NGOs in the Dominican
  Republic (CEDAIL, CENSEL, FISOE, CEPLES)
•  They are now working together to promote a
  better understanding of womens issues to ensure
  that women are treated fairly in the home

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Industry key words and phrases

• Free trade zone an area within a country
  regarded as being outside its customs
  territoryexempt from custom duties and taxes
• Nontraditional agriculture 1) all agriculture
  exports except sugar, coffee, cocoa, and tobacco
  2) agro-industrial commodities for local and
  export markets
• Sex tourism any travel experience where the
  provision of sexual services by the host
  population in exchange for monetary and
  nonmonetary rewards makes a significant
  contribution to the enjoyment of the holiday
  itself (Mullings)
• CBTPA Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership
  Actsignificantly expands preferential treatment
  for apparel made in the Caribbean Basin region
  (Export Advantage)

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Imports and Exports of Textile and Apparel
Production

• Imports
• Cut apparel parts (pre-made)
• The U.S. accounts for 85 of Dominican textile
  imports
• Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, and South Korea
• Commodities foodstuff, petroleum, cotton and
  fabrics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals

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Textile and Apparel Production (cont.)

• Exports
• Consist largely of finished garments for the U.S.
  market
• Largely assembled in free trade zones for export
• Export partners of the D.R. are U.S. 87.3,
  Netherlands 1.1, Canada 0.7, France 0.7 (2000
  est.)
• Momsen produces what it doesnt consume,
  consumes what it doesnt produce
• ?clothing, food, tourism, etc.

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Industries Tourism, Agriculture, and Apparel

• Industries tourism, sugar processing, textiles,
  tobacco
• Tourism has replaced sugar as countrys leading
  foreign-exchange earner in 1984
• Labor force by occupation services and govt
  58.7, industry 24.3, agriculture 17 (1998
  est.)
• Andreatta tourism, credit card processing,
  offshore banking, and other high tech industry
  are moving in to the Caribbean

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Where the success of industry lies

• Success in exporting low cost labor resources
• 20 years success in garment assembly
• of the 34 electronic firms in the D.R., 30
  produce goods SOLELY for export
• 90 produced for the U.S.

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AGRICULTURE

• Traditional export crops are
• 1)      Sugar
• 2)     Coffee
• 3)    Cocoa
• 4)    Tobacco
• The countrys agricultural sector has moved away
  from sugar and other traditional crops, with
  increased production and export of
  non-traditional crops.
• Non-Traditional Export Crops are
• 1)      Pineapples
• 2)    Citrus
• 3)    Melons
• 4)    Mangoes
•  Agricultural areas are found in the East and
  Santiago.
•  
•  
•  
•  

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• Agriculture was the backbone of the Dominican
  economy for centuries. It declined significantly
  during the 1970s and the 1980s, as manufacturing,
  mining, and tourism began to play more important
  roles in the country's development
• During the 1960s, the agricultural sector
  employed close to 60 percent of the labor force,
  contributed one-quarter of GDP, and provided
  between 80 and 90 percent of exports. By 1988,
  however, agriculture employed only 35 percent of
  the labor force, accounted for 15 percent of GDP,
  and generated approximately half of all exports.
• The declining importance of sugar, the principal
  source of economic activity for nearly a century,
  was even more dramatic. Sugar's share of total
  exports fell from 63 percent in 1975 to under 20
  percent by the late 1980s.

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• The transformation in agriculture paralleled the
  country's demographic trends. In 1960, some 70
  percent of the country's population was rural by
  the 1990s, upwards of 70 percent was expected to
  be urban. Government policies accelerated
  urbanization through development strategies that
  favored urban industries over agriculture in
  terms of access to capital, tariff and tax
  exemptions, and pricing policies. As a
  consequence, the production of major food crops
  either stagnated, or declined, in per capita
  terms from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s. Lower
  world prices for traditional cash crops and
  reductions in the United States sugar quota also
  depressed the production of export crops in the
  1980s.
• http//memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy_at_f
  ield(DOCIDdo0056)
• Data as of December 1989

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CONTRACT FARMING

• What is Contract Farming?
• It is production by smallholders for private
  corporations.
• Contract farming commits household land and labor
  resources to the production of a commodity that
  is ultimately controlled by an agro industrial
  firm.
• Contract Farming is linked to the increasing
  consumption of processed foods and the declining
  capacity of the state to provide credit and other
  inputs to peasant producers.
• Process of Contract Farming
• The purchaser enters into a formal agreement with
  the grower to buy the farm output prior to
  production. In return for the production the
  grower agrees to abide by rules over sighted of
  the purchaser.
• In other words the Purchasers provide the capital
  and services and the growers provide the land and
  labor.

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• Disadvantages of Contract Farming
• 1)     The Producers are subordinated to
  management, so we have a proletarian and
  bourgeois scenario. There is a disguised wage
  labor present.
• 2)     Its not an individual that is involved in
  this type of farming but the entire family.
• 3)     Traditional crops have declined with the
  increase of non-traditional crops.
• 4)     The use of pesticide, chemical fertilizers
  and mechanical cultivation has increased
  dramatically. (Example of the Tomato Production)
• 5)     Growers are experiencing more debt because
  of these changes.

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WOMEN IN AGRICULTURE

• The expansion of non-traditional crops has
  increased the labor market in the Dominican
  Republic. It has been encouraging to the women
  labor force.
• As result women play a predominant role in the
  production of these new crops.
• Women are in the background of the peasant
  agricultural work. They do the harvesting and
  post harvesting crop handling which generally get
  no pay. In 1985 14 of Dominican Women were
  employed in agriculture.
•  

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• Women constitute to 42 of the paid
  nontraditional agriculture labor force. The
  majority of women are involved in the production
  of fresh produce exports. For example, melon,
  pineapple, avocado and other fresh fruit and nut
  enterprises.They rely heavily on womens labor.
  For example, women constituted for over 55 of
  the workers on the pineapple plantation.

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AGRICULTURE TOURISM

• Tourism can influence agriculture in 5
  interrelated ways
•  It can offer alternative employment
  opportunities and therefore raise the reserve
  price for agriculture labor and encourage
  migration from farming to tourist areas.
•   Competition for land between recreation and
  agriculture may raise land values and so remove
  some agricultural land from food production.
•    
• Tourist activities may modify land use values
  around resort areas
•     
• Tourist demand for high-value and quality food
  may provide incentive for farmers to increase and
  diversify production or increase food import
• Tourism may create aesthetic uses for rural land,
  encouraging preservation of some rural
  environments and creating associated recreation
  based jobs in rural areas.

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History and Development over the years tourism

•  
• -Prior to 1967, more Dominicans traveled abroad
  than foreigners came to visit the country.
• -In 1970, INFRATUR was developed to monitor and
  to invest directly in tourist-related
  infrastructure projects.
• -Multiple devaluations of the peso created a
  tourism product that was unbeatable in price.

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History and Development (contd)

• -By 1984, tourism replaced sugar as the countrys
  leading foreign exchange earner, exemplifying
  the growing diversity of the Dominican Republic
  economy.
• -By 1989, it boasted more than 18,000 hotel rooms
  more than any other location in the Caribbean.
• -The number of tourists visiting the island
  increased from 278,000 in 1975 to 792,000 in 1985
  and in 1987 the number of vacationers surpassed 1
  million for the first time.

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Income from Tourism

•    Tourist Numbers
• -         The majority of tourists come by air
  and stay for at least a week (Europeans average
  two weeks)

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Arrivals

•        The Dominican Republic is the most popular
  Caribbean destination for Europeans, and they
  make up 46 of its overnight visitors. In 1997,
  the countries sending the largest number of
  tourists were
•          United States 402,039
•          Germany 328,860
•          United Kingdom 216,790
•          Canada 152,777
•          Italy 118,551
•          Spain 106,398
•          France 57,507
•          Belgium 46,590
•          Austria 36,753

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Who owns the Hotels?

• -Although some foreign-owned hotel chains began
  investing heavily in the early 1970s (such as
  Gulf and Western with the luxury Casa de Campo),
  the industrys development was primarily made
  possible by domestic investors.
• -In 1987, only 21 of hotel rooms were estimated
  to be foreign owned.

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Is the Income staying within the country?

• -Because the majority of the hotel chains are
  domestic owned, the majority of the income is
  kept within the country. However for the
  approximately 25 foreign owned hotels, this
  amount goes out of the country.

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Benefits of Tourism

• -         Tourism offers higher wages
• -         Tourist industry employs a number of
  workers which provide employment for a
  significant percentage of the countrys
  population
• -         Access to foreign currencies
• -         Makes a substantial contribution to the
  countrys GDP
• -         casinos bring in a high amount of
  visitors and hence some foreign exchange

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Problems associated with Tourism

• (A)   Environmental
• -Inadequate supplies of clean water
• -Electricity
• -Soil eroding into the sea damaging the coral
  reefs
•  
• -deforestation
•  
• -irreplaceable damages from Hurricane George
• crime

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• B) Other
• Sex tourism

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Plans to Improve Tourism

• -The Government has put measures in place to
  ensure that tourism development and environmental
  management are mutually supportive. It has also
  adopted integrated planning policies and promoted
  public awareness/education for sustainable
  tourism.
• The Government has formulated policies for
  general tourism, eco-tourism and cultural
  tourism, but there are no marine-based tourism
  policies at this time. The Government has also
  expressed its support in this area by joining in
  the Declaration of the Caribbean Sea as a
  Sustainable Tourism Region. Public participation
  has been developed as a tourism management
  strategy, and the development of regulatory
  measures has occurred.
• The Government has not adopted measures to
  protect the cultural integrity of the Dominican
  Republic however, local ownership within the
  tourism sector has been encouraged. The
  Government has not yet provided incentives within
  the tourism industry for the use of sustainable
  technology with respect to energy, water
  resources or waste disposal, but it has been
  supportive to hoteliers engaged in these
  efforts.