By Gaulbert Sutherland
Following difficulties in agreeing a mechanism through which money from the Guyana-Norway forest protection agreement will flow to this country, President Bharrat Jagdeo is optimistic that the issue will be resolved soon.
The two countries have chosen the World Bank as the agency through which the money will be channelled. “We have worked for a very long time on this and we had grave difficulties, significant difficulties”, the Head of State said in an interview with Stabroek News in Oslo, Norway last week. Asked to elaborate on a statement he made at the Oslo Climate and Forest Conference that despite meeting all the performance-based targets for the first year, Guyana has had difficulties in accessing the funds under the US$250m agreement, the President explained that there were difficulties in establishing the mechanism that will intermediate or transfer the funds to Guyana and ensure that there are fiduciary, social and environmental safeguards.
“We started the work with the World Bank and we think to a large extent they wanted to use old tools, old development tools in a very new situation and therefore both partners, Norway and Guyana, agreed that this couldn’t work”, the President said. He recounted that at one point the World Bank indicated that they may not be able to develop new instruments. “Fortunately that has moved on and we are very close to reaching agreement on a very different approach to the intermediation of these funds but we are having some difficulties because we are the first to be designing such a system and hopefully this system will be replicated and used by others”, he said.
Jagdeo declared that in the design of this mechanism, they have to be very conscious of the role that Guyana is playing as a developing, forested country. He said that the fund cannot just be designed to suit the needs of the donors or the multilateral institutions but has to ensure that the developing and forested countries interests’ are safeguarded as well. While there are concerns about safeguards, Guyana also has concerns about timely disbursement of funds and minimal bureaucracy once the money is used in an accountable manner without harming the environment or people, the President explained.
He said that he had spoken with World Bank President, Robert Zoellick on this and Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg. “To be fair, I think the President of the World Bank understands this and understands that if they get it right too then the World Bank could be a preferred institution for intermediating large sums of money, not just the Guyana funds but large sums of money”, Jagdeo said. He added that unfortunately at levels below the presidency, there is a “lack of creativity” and “old thinking” and a cautious approach which will not work in this situation. He said that they wanted to use things that they are accustomed to, “old grant agreements in a very new situation that demands very new instruments.”
“We are still hoping we can find a mechanism through the World Bank to intermediate these funds”, Jagdeo emphasized. “We’re hoping within weeks this would be settled”, he added.
Noting that the revised Low Carbon Development Strategy had been re-launched before he left for Oslo last week, Jagdeo said that it is time for moving from discussion and consultation to implementation. “We have identified the projects that we want the money to flow to in the first two years.
Parliament had already appropriated the funds. Now within a few weeks we will notify Parliament of these projects so there can be parliamentary oversight too”, he said.
While in Oslo, the President had several meetings with officials from various countries.
Over 50 countries had agreed there to partner to save forests. Jagdeo said France’s Minister of the Environment said that he wants to come to Guyana with some African leaders to learn of this country’s experience while the President of Congo said he would send his Minister here to see what Guyana has done.
Norway supports the Congo Basin Forest Fund. “A significant part of this partnership is sharing experience and I think we are in a position because we have answered so many of the questions that many other countries would have to answer as they create their national models”, Jagdeo said. “This is what is so good about the partnership. It will bring countries that have done this before with countries that are seeking to do this and hopefully because we have pioneered the path it would be a easier path which they can follow”, he added.
