Generic Information 

The Dominican Republic is a country located in the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands, along with Saint Martin, that are shared by two sovereign states. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean nation by area (after Cuba) at 48,671 square kilometers (18,792 sq mi), and third by population with approximately 10 million people, of which approximately three million live in the metropolitan area of Santo Domingo, the capital city.

Generic country information can be located from sources which are regularly maintained and reflect current facts and figures. For a generic country overview, please consult the following sources:

Wikipedia Country Information: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dominican_Republic

IMF Country Information: http://www.imf.org/external/country/DOM/index.htm

Economist Intelligence Unit: http://country.eiu.com/dominican-republic

 (*note - this is a paid service)

Humanitarian Information

Sharing the Caribbean island of Hispaniola with Haiti, the Dominican Republic is an upper-middle-income country ranking 101 out of 187 in the 2015 Human Development Index.

Over the past decades, the country has experienced sustained economic growth and stability, and has succeeded in meeting the Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of hungry people by 2015. However, income distribution remains unequal, quality of health services is inadequate, and poverty still affects just over 40 percent of the population, with 10.4 percent living in extreme poverty. Most poor families live in urban areas and 63 percent of them are headed by women.

Poverty and inequality, coupled with a lack of diverse diets and a weak agricultural structure, lie at the roots of food insecurity and overlapping nutritional problems. These include chronic undernutrition, which affects 7 percent of children under 5; overweight; and anemia, which affects one in three women of reproductive age and up to 61 percent of children aged between 6 and 11 months.

The Dominican Republic suffers from recurrent natural shocks and, according to the Global Climate Risk Index, it is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. In 2016, after suffering from drought in rural areas, the country was indirectly affected by Hurricane Matthew that hit Haiti, as well as by severe floods as a consequence of continuous rains in the northern region.

The World Food Programme (WFP) has been present in the Dominican Republic since 1969. Its work focuses on strengthening national capacities and programmes in the areas of nutrition, social protection, emergency preparedness and disaster risk management. WFP works in partnership with the government, contributing to the National Development Strategy and also supports the development of public policies to reduce hunger and malnutrition.

Further humanitarian information can be found at the following links:

World Food Programme: https://www1.wfp.org/countries/dominican-republic

Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs: https://www.unocha.org/rolac

Facts and Figures

Wolfram Alpha:https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=dominican+republic

World Bank:http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/dominicanrepublic

Population Information: http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/dominican-republic-population/