KEY POINTS:
PORT-AU-PRINCE - Sheltering from the sun beneath a tattered piece of plastic in the crowded streets of Salamoun market, Jacqueline Charles shrugged when asked whether life had improved under the government of the man she voted for.
"Maybe one day," said the 60-year-old, who was selling rice. "Only
God knows. I voted for change but things cannot change right away."
Anyone seeking signs of improvement in Haiti has a frustrating task, and this teeming market in the centre of the capital, where some of the city's most beleaguered residents scrape a living, may not be the best place to start. But six months after Rene Preval was sworn in as President of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, there are small, if flickering, signs of progress.
Perhaps most noticeable is an improvement in security. Streets that were once occupied by UN soldiers in armoured vehicles are no less chaotic, but troops are being less visibly deployed. And, vitally, kidnappings appear to be in decline.
Figures from the United Nations Mission in Haiti suggest kidnappings have fallen every month since August, when there were 78, to 12 so far this month, while in the Cite Soleil area, police have established a presence for the first time in three years.
There has also been economic progress. Preval's administration has passed a budget, is collecting taxes and has been promised US$750m ($1.1 billion) in international aid.
Inflation is estimated to have fallen from 16 per cent to 9 per cent, and the IMF expects economic growth of 2.5 per cent.
"There is some kind of window of opportunity and the sense of stability that the country has some future," said Edmond Mulet, the UN envoy to Haiti.
The challenge for Preval is to bring change to the lives of those people who voted for him this year - the huge numbers of the desperately poor. For these people there has so far been little, if any, improvement.
"We have not seen a change," said another seller at Salamoun market, Jocelyn LaCrette. Asked what would make life better, she replied: "Food and security."
It is difficult to overestimate the impoverishment faced by Haiti's poor. More than three-quarters of the population survives below the official UN poverty line of US$2 a day, and 50 per cent exist on US$1 a day.
In the worst slums, the misery is clear. Less than half the population has access to clean water and Haiti is ranked with Somalia and Afghanistan as having the worst daily calorific deficit of any country in the world.
Haiti has only a very small middle class and a small, often lighter-skinned, elite that lives in the enclave of Petionville.
Struggle to survive
* 75 per cent of Haitians survive below the UN poverty line of US$2 a day.
* 50 per cent live on US$1 a day.
* Less than half the population has access to clean water.
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