Dear Editor,
The World Bank recently approved a US$20 million loan for a Guyana Petroleum Resources Governance and Management project to “strengthen institutions, laws and regulations to promote good governance and a prudent management of Guyana’s oil and gas sector…(update) existing laws and regulations and introduce strong checks and balances to mitigate environmental and social impacts” (http://www.worldbank.org/ en/news/press-release/2019/04/ 02/towards-a-transparent-and-effective-management-of-guyanas-oil-and-gas-sector). This may or may not be the same project as the World Bank’s Guyana Oil & Gas Capacity Building Project #166730, which also seems to be about integrating environmental, social (including labour), health, safety and security considerations in oil and gas policies, laws and sector growth.
In October 2018, the profile for an IDB project, Strengthening the Energy Sector (GY-L1067), was published, indicating that the IDB was providing a US$11.64 million loan to the Government of Guyana to “strengthen the governance of the O&G sector and to diversify Guyana’s energy matrix, through the implementation of policy reform measures and institutional changes” http:// idbdocs.iadb.org/ wsdocs/ getdocument.aspx?docnum=EZSHARE-577981847-33). The IDB had earlier, in 2018, also provided a loan – GY-T1148 : Guyana’s Emerging Oil & Gas Sector: Getting Institutions Right – and while it’s a bit unclear what this latter loan was meant for, one can be quite certain that the IDB would not be extending a new loan to do what an old loan was supposed to do.
These various loans will provide the usual “institutional strengthening, capacity building, sector sustainability” things, but there is value added for Guyana with each new project. The World Bank, for example, will focus on the mitigation of environmental and social impacts while the IDB will focus on the diversification of Guyana’s energy matrix. Lending by the two development partners is being “coordinated with the other development partner organizations through the Energy Coordination Donor Group, led by the U.S. Embassy in Guyana,” according to the IDB profile project document. Hence, the first tranche of the IDB loan only supported the establishment of the Department of Energy (DoE), while the later World Bank loan will concern itself with building the DoE’s capacity.
Not only will the coordination by the US Embassy ensure that there not be a duplication of efforts, but the Energy Coordination Donor Group is also quite comprehensive in its work. For instance, it has ensured that World Bank money is available for “information campaigns and citizen engagement,” while IDB money will support the development of a hydrocarbon depletion policy, a model PSA and contract administration, a cleaner energy generation matrix, and so on.
We must also thank all the development partners and consultants, whether or not their efforts are coordinated by the US Embassy in Georgetown, for “having our collective back” while cynical persons among us talk about a resource curse. To help us avoid the latter, we will doubtless get much needed project support to figure out the meaning of a majority, and other governance things.
Was John Lennon right that “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”? For me, John Lennon could not possibly be wrong; and he wasn’t. He was invoking a fine distinction between plans and projects, and he explicitly reserved his cynicism only for the former.
Yours faithfully,
Thomas B. Singh
Director
University of Guyana GREEN
Institute
