The need to have better metrics to measure development in the country was highlighted and emphasised at the most recent symposium.
Conservation International in collaboration with the Department of Environment, UN-Environment, the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) Coordination Office, WWF-Guianas, the University of Guyana and the Ministry of Finance partnered to host sessions of “Green Conversations” that are open, non-partisan spaces geared towards encouraging the Guyanese population to “think differently about their lifestyle choices.”
The series is intended to be an awareness-raising tool specifically tailored to Georgetown and surrounding communities, and their needs and priorities.
The second conversation was held in Georgetown at the Duke Lodge on Friday, January 25th. The discussion was opened by Mayor Pandit Ubraj Narine and featured presentations from Professor Paloma Mohammed-Martin, Executive Director of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Richard Rambarran and Dr Quincy Jones, Region Four’s Regional Health Officer.
Rambarran focused his discussion on the metrics that are used to measure development in the country. He explained that he was speaking in a private capacity and praised the diverse gathering. According to him, his topic is of paramount importance in the context of human capital development, which should be on the cards for everyone.
Explaining that the conversation stems from the GSDS, which draws its inspiration from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Rambarran said that it is important to understand that the SDGs are a new pathway of international development, which would have evolved from the previous Millennium Development Goals.
“One of the thematic areas of the Green State Development Plan is one of human capital development. But what I think is very important is for us to understand that in this push for environmental conservation and such, what is important is that of development…It’s something which is supposed to be able to, in its form and substance, drive economic growth and by extension, economic development,” he said, while adding that there are stark differences between economic growth and development.
He explained that while economic growth refers to the rate at which the Gross Domestic Product expands, economic development refers to the way society itself develops in terms of its wellbeing.
“What I find in contemporary discussions is something which is very unidimensional and that is the nature of how we measure our metrics that we use. Now, if we look at the way that Guyana’s national account system is set up, we still force a lot of efforts on what we know as hard metrics for development. Metrics which are focused on industrial output, metrics which are focused on rate of expansion, metrics which are focused on exchange rates, balance of payments, surplus and we can go on and on with the usual development mantra. But one would have to ask is this metric considering the nature of human capital? What is really happening to our people?” Rambarran highlighted.
He explained that if the subject of human capital development is going to be a focus, then the metric that is being used needs to be discussed.
“So therefore, on a national scheme, we have to begin to speak in different terms other than 2.1 per cent growth rate last year…Tell me more tangible things. Let us talk about our level of equality, let us talk about our level of participation, household equality. Are we including the contribution of women in the national output? Are we measuring the nature of gender equality in workplaces? Are we looking along [those] sort of progressive roots? Those are critical questions which one must ask if we are going to examine development in that way,” he said.
Rambarran also noted that the topic of migration must be also considered when discussing human capital and in addition to the pull factors of migration, the push factors should also be considered.
