The Guyana Poverty Reduc-tion Strategy Paper (PRSP), crafted out of nation-wide participatory consultations and published in 2001, set out the parameters of poverty in Guyana, analysed the contributory factors and detailed a road map for poverty alleviation or eradication. President Jagdeo announced late last year that “Guyana will commence negotiations with the IMF next year, with a view to coming up with a successor programme to the just concluded Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF)” (Stabroek News, December 24, 2006).
At the turn of the millennium, Guyana was still suffering from a continuing high incidence of poverty: “In 1999
