Dear Editor,
I’d like to draw your attention to an open letter sent by members of Guyanese civil society to the Norwegian Minister of the Environment on 24 March 2011 and posted at: Eight problems with Norway’s REDD support to Guyana, http://www.redd-monitor.org/2011/03/25/eight-problems-with-norways-redd-support-to-guyana-open-letter-to-erik-solheim/
This letter sets out eight major problems with the Norway-Guyana MOU, signed in November 2009, and urges the Norwegian government to
►support civil society to reduce the disabling secrecy and corruption which this relatively huge amount of money inevitably attracts;
►insist on and support a transparent and participative revision of the enablers, including independent advisers and civil society, in a process not dominated by the President or government agencies;
►insist that all material which is not commercially confidential but which is relevant to the operation of this MoU should be in the public domain with minimal redaction and no tampering.
►open the GRIF steering committee to representatives of the supposedly beneficiary populations.
This open letter by civil society members seems to be in line with the recommendations that were made simultaneously by Dr Yash Ghai, former Chair of the Kenya Constitutional Commission, as reported in SN, March 26, 2011, ‘Visiting constitutional expert warns of state’s coercive powers, weakening of civil society’
http://www.stabroeknew.com/2011/news/stories/03/26/visiting-constitutional-expert-warns-of-state%E2%80%99s-coercive-powers-weakening-of-civil-society/#
Yours faithfully,
Janette Bulkan
