Government yesterday ex-pressed concern over the specific mention of ‘Afro-descendants’ in the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) draft policy on gender and equality for development, since it is inconsistent with the more general and non-discriminatory language of other sections of the document.
Speaking on the first day of the country’s consultative process on the draft document yesterday at the Pegasus Hotel, Minister within the Ministry of Finance Jennifer Webster pointed out that no ethnic group in Guyana is over 50% of the population. She then asked that the language used in Section 4.5 of the document be “revisited and revised since it immediately precludes other ethnic groupings from equal consideration in this draft policy that is intended to have broad-based applicability.”
This issue was a major part of yesterday’s discussion following the official presentations and Senior Specialist in the IDB’s Gender & Diversity Unit Anne-Marie Urban said it would be further discussed internally by the bank before the final document is presented.
While Webster did not specifically mention ‘Afro-descendants’ she said she had noted the “reference to one particular ethnic group of women” and the section she referred to singled out Afro-descendants.
It reads: “The policy recognizes that gender inequalities interact with other inequalities that are based on socioeconomic, ethnic, and racial factors, exacerbating the barriers and vulnerabilities of poor indigenous and Afro-descendant women. For this reason, the bank will pay particular attention to those groups.”
Yesterday’s consultation was expected to solicit national input to assist the IDB’s updating of its operating policy on women in development. The updated policy is also expected to strengthen the bank’s response to the goals and commitments of its member countries in Latin America and the Caribbean and to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. It is also expected to consider both preventative and proactive actions in the bank’s support of the advancement of gender equality in the Caribbean and Latin America.
The updated policy, once approved, will replace the existing Operating Policy on Women in Development, which has been in existence since 1987. It is the second phase of the public consultation process. The first phase, which focused on the profile for the policy, has been completed. The second and final consultation will be completed on July 19 and the bank will then revise the draft policy, incorporating comments and suggestions received. It is expected that the final document will be completed by October.
Reality
Eric Phillips, who represented the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA), began to comment that the minister had objected to the words “Afro descendants” in the section and was immediately interrupted by Webster who pointed out that she made no mention of “any particular group”.
However, Phillips pointed out that in Latin America there is a large population of Afro-descendants; 20 times larger than the indigenous population, living in “extreme poverty”. Since the policy covers the whole of Latin America it is dealing with the reality, hence the inclusion of the specific mention of Afro-descendants. Phillips also made mention of an ACDA programme which was funded by the IDB and not supported by the government, the results of which he described as “extraordinary”.
“I think that the concern about the language in 4.5 should be placed in context because there is a much broader issue dealing with the status of Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples in Latin America,” Phillips pointed out.
Alliance For Change (AFC) member of parliament, Sheila Holder, picking up the issue, enquired who was responsible for the policy document presented at the consultation and whether consideration was given to UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall’s report.
According to Holder, that report, which the Govern-ment of Guyana took serious issue with, would place in context the rationale for the inclusion of Afro-descendants.
Holder noted that Guyana has a tradition of racial politics where the two main political parties are traditionally supported by the two main race groups and as such if the issue of gender equality is to be addressed in the consultative process in Guyana some aspect of the reality needs to be addressed. Holder said the rationale for the Women and Gender Equality Commission (WGEC) was advanced by civil society with a view to introducing non-political participation.
“But when those institutions [such as the WGEC] are dominated by the chairperson and the deputy chairperson [who are] members of parliament of the two main political parties there is a significant political impact that cannot be ignored…” Holder said.
Meanwhile, responding, Urban said the point made by Phillips as to the reason Afro-descendants were specifically included in the document was “exactly the intention” of the bank as there was a lot of data indicating the population groups that are of concern. She added that the fact that other groups are not specifically mentioned does not mean they are not getting attention.
“But based on this discussion, I do think that we need to discuss whether it should be more expansive in the way it is presented… We are going to look at this very seriously and we are going to talk about it internally,” Urban said.
“It has been reiterated enough that I can guarantee that this would be a source of important discussion before presenting the final draft [of the policy].”
She did not address the specific points made by Holder, but said the IDB website would have a record of all the issues raised.
However, WGEC commissioner Gillian Burton, who is a vice-chair of the IDB’s Civil Society Consulting Group, said she was part of the process that elected the head and deputy head of the commission and while Guyana does have issues with politics the election of the chair person and the vice-chair person was done in a very democratic way. “We voted and we did not have to be afraid that we would have known who voted for whom,” Burton said.
She added that it was because of their experience that Indra Chandarpal and Cheryl Sampson were elected as chair and vice-chair respectively, since the group was a “very relatively young” group in the sense that only three persons had wide international experience.
Homing in on Section 4.5, Burton asked that the policy be looked at as being a global policy and “where there is globalness there must be inclusiveness”.
Meantime, Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira said that when Webster raised the issue of the contentious section it was to review and revisit with a view to including a broader concept of other ethnic minorities.
She said while Afro-descendants and indigenous people are the minorities of Latin America, in the Caribbean it is reversed. The “minorities are not Afro-descendants, the minorities are East Indians, mixtures, Amerindians etc and then there are countries… like Suriname and Guyana where you have many, many ethnic groups, all of which are minorities,” she said.
“It is not saying remove descendants of Africans, it is saying make sure [that] … its broadest application… allows for the inclusion of all ethnic groupings, vulnerable groups…”
Evaluation
criteria
Meanwhile, Webster urged that in the current global environment, the IDB should be cautious in setting monitoring and evaluation criteria that could result in the loss of resources for poor countries grappling with reducing concessional resource availability and debt sustainability issues.
“Balancing macroeconomic stability issues and debt sustainability issues is of profound importance, especially for countries that have experienced decades of [an] unstable macroeconomic climate and [an] onerous debt burden, which affects the population at large… in unimaginable ways and which impedes the development agenda of our country,” the minister said.
Teixeira asked the IDB representative not to make it “more difficult” as while there are conditionalities to be met, they should not be more “bureaucratic than they are right now.
“Having been involved in IDB projects in my past life as a minister in three different ministries, these hurdles were not easy… in Parliament for example you would sometimes make an announcement that there is going to be an agreement with the IDB and then people would say a year later you know ‘wah you all doing with de money’. [But] the money hasn’t been released as yet because we are still going the feasibility, etc, etc,” Teixeira said.
Webster also asked that since a significant number of Guyana’s projects already include direct and indirect beneficiaries — men and women, boys and girls — the country does not need for its projects to be designed in an acceptable manner to all stakeholders.
“For example, in the case of major strategic infrastructural projects, it may be very difficult to demonstrate that there is gender equality, since certain types of infrastructural projects enhance economic activity in a way that benefits the nation at large,” the minister said.
She questioned whether, if gender impact is assessed on every project to be undertaken by any country, it means one would have to retain the services of consultants to garner the information required.
“This might entail additional bureaucratic processes, and the utilization of scarce resources, which should not impinge upon country resource allocations,” the minister said.
She said ultimately, this will impact on the timeliness of project approval, and could result in delays being experienced in project design.
“We must guard against any delays that would result in delayed benefits to the people of our country,” she stressed. “It is the Government of Guyana’s position that whilst we support in principle a policy such as this one, what we do not want is for the project design and implementation process to result in unforeseeable delays,” she pointed out.
