Indigenous women, children still most disadvantaged group in Guyana – study

UNICEF Permanent Representative to Guyana and Suriname Sylvie Fouet handing over the Executive Summary of the study on Indigenous Women and Children in Guyana to Minister of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Sydney Allicock on Friday. (Keno George photo)

Indigenous women and children remain the most disadvantaged group in Guyana, a recent study produced by the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs (MoIPA) has found.

The study was said to be motivated by the findings of Guyana’s Situation Analysis of Children (SitAn) 2016, which found that the health, education and socio-economic indicators for the Indigenous population were among the worst in Guyana.

It is against this backdrop that the study, which is the first of its kind in both the Caribbean and Latin America, seeks to inform countrywide, local and regional strategies, projects and programmes that are aimed at the realisation of children’s and women’s rights as well as the empowerment of indigenous women, children and adolescents.