The 11th and final advisory committee meeting of the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS): Vision 2040 was held yesterday, after months of consultations.
The multi-stakeholder committee meeting was held by the Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Environment (DoE), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), at Cara Lodge.
The GSDS, which a Ministry of the Presidency release said will be “a living example of Guyana’s commitment to the planet”, will also ensure the sustainable growth and economic well-being of the country’s population, while guiding Guyana’s national development policies for the next 20 years.
Questions have been raised about the compatibility of the Green State plan with Guyana’s intention to extract large quantities of oil offshore beginning early next year and continuing for perhaps the next two decades.
According to the release, the DoE is currently working on the third component of the GSDS—the Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. The policy document is scheduled to be launched this September.
According to Director of the DoE and Co-chair of the GSDS Advisory Committee, Ndibi Schwiers, yesterday’s meeting marked the formal conclusion of the process to develop the strategy.
The meetings, aimed at guiding and providing institutional support for the elaboration of the Guyana Government’s commitment to the plan, began in 2018. It was reported that the Committee used the 2017 GSDS framework as a terms of reference to develop the new document.
It was noted that the advisory committee is comprised of senior representatives from several Government and Private Sector entities, who serve as chairs and co-chairs of each of the seven thematic expert groups of the GSDS.
“We were cognisant of ensuring that developing the Green State Development Strategy, that it was a document developed by Guyanese. This document was not developed easily; it required the effort, time and energy of you [the stakeholder] and provide for the development of people and the improvement of the environment and moving forward we want to ensure that our M&E [Monitoring and Evaluation] framework is aligned with Budget 2020,” Schwiers said.
Sonya Roopnauth, Co-Chair of the GSDS Advisory Committee and Director of the Office of the Budget, noted that the GSDS will guide the input of the national budget process, and as such, the development of the strategy is just the beginning of the hard work that will go into realising the plan.
Weighing in, UNEP Environmental Director, Latin America and the Caribbean, Leo Heileman, advised that Guyana market the strategy, commenting that other countries in the region view the development of such a plan as a pivotal moment.
Beacon of light
“I think that this is a beacon of light for the Caribbean community. What you have here brings the country in a clear direction and it is a remarkable achievement which will ensure the best use of its resources. For us, this is a fundamental document that gives the policy direction other countries not only in the Caribbean, will look into this as a visionary approach… I have had feedback from some countries who have heard a bit about this and there is interest about what is happening in Guyana. They see this [as] a sort of a pivotal moment in the Caribbean; they see this as something that they need to consider and learn from,” he stated.
Furthermore, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Senior Strategic Advisor – Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (RBLAC), Luca Renda, congratulated the Government of Guyana on the development of the GSDS, noting that the UN will continue to partner with Guyana.
The release said he called the GSDS a remarkable document, and one with an important narrative for Guyana. He also noted that the link between the strategy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG) is a fundamental one and, therefore, urged that awareness be raised in the international community about the strategy.
