World Bank Director for the Caribbean Country Management Unit, Latin America and the Caribbean Region, Yvonne Tsikata on Wednesday discussed with President Bharrat Jagdeo general issues related to the global financial crisis and how Guyana was responding.
She also said the areas that the Bank is focusing in on are the same identified by Guyana as priorities.
According to a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release the director made these comments following a meeting on Wednesday with President Jagdeo at State House.
“I had an excellent meeting with President Jagdeo… we also discussed the World Bank’s next country assistance strategy and got some guidance from the President on the areas of focus that he would like to see us engaged on,” Tsikata said. The director noted that these are the same areas that the Bank has been focusing on “because typically for the country’s strategy what we do is focus on areas that the government has identified as priorities. In the case of Guyana you have a National Developmental Strategy and the Poverty Reduction Strategy paper so we looked at that and had our meeting of minds as to the areas of focus.”
Tsikata added that the areas of focus will be issues of environmental resilience and climate change as well as the issues of the quality of education and social protection which are “very much in line with the government’s priorities.” She is expected to be back in Guyana for follow-up meetings.
According to GINA in 2008 the Bank met with government officials to discuss the details of the upcoming Country Assistance Strategy that will cover a period of three years (2009-2012). The Bank has funded several significant programmes in Guyana including the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control project that amounted to US$10M, the Water Sector Consolidation Project that cost US$11.3M, the Education for All Fast Track Initiative and the US$3.8M Conservancy Adaptation Project.