Missed opportunity
The Guyana economy grew by an average of 5 percent over the last seven years but questions remain about the distribution of the wealth. Questions also remain about the opportunities for equitable participation in the procurement activities of the country. On 23rd December 2013, the United Nations adopted resolution 68/237 declaring the period 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent. The proclamation that created the observance of the Decade was followed by the adoption of a programme of action in 2014. The global community agreed to the programme unanimously just before the launch of the Decade and identified actions that countries needed to take to bring about meaningful changes in the social and economic conditions of people of African descent. Despite the racial make-up of the country, Guyana does not escape the responsibility of making the lives of people of African descent in this country better.
This article seeks to examine some of the economic provisions of the resolution 69/16 that contains the programme of action that Guyana supported in 2014 during the 55th plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly. Therefore, the article does not come close to exhausting the many aspects of the programme of action.
Indeed, the Decade was launched last year, but may have gone unnoticed because the political events at the time in Guyana might have overshadowed the occasion. The Parliament had been suspended and the country was gripped with political uncertainty. A decision about whether and when to hold elections occupied the minds of Guyanese more at the time than the launch of the Decade. Guyana therefore would have missed the opportunity to acknowledge the Decade and to assess the implications of its launch for national cohesion and national economic development. One did hear the current President of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana address a gathering on the issue early last year.
