This is the sixth entry in a series on the current state of civil society in Guyana.
As a civil society organisation, the Guyana National Youth Council (GNYC) sees dialogue with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport as essential, according to President Dr Quacy Grant, who says a partnership is needed to ensure that national policies and their implementation are in the interest of all.
However, while the GNYC wants to meet with the government as it relates to the national youth policy, representation at an upcoming Commonwealth forum and other areas, Grant said it has had had no success in meeting with the Minister responsible for this sector, Charles Ramson.
Asked by Sunday Stabroek if he was satisfied with government’s interaction with the GNYC, Grant said: “I won’t say satisfied. There is room for improvement. Room for improvement with government starts with dialogue. It is the starting point. If you are not talking to me or I am not talking with you, how can our relationship be improved?”
Since the current administration took office in August 2020, Grant told Sunday Stabroek, the GNYC, by way of a letter, sought a meeting with the minister responsible for youth affairs, Ramson, to give him an overview of their work programme and to offer their assistance based on their knowledge and expertise.
“We were told that the minister is busy and that he will probably meet with us in January,” Grant said.
“We followed up in trying to make contact with the minister on other issues including one in which the Commonwealth Youth Council was hosting the Common-wealth Youth Forum (CYF) and which needed national youth delegates. We took the opportunity on those occasions to remind him of our need to meet with him.”
Grant said the organisers of the CYF had asked government to nominate delegates to attend the forum, one of whom should have been from the GNYC since it is an affiliate of the Commonwealth Youth Council.
“We were not successful in meeting with the government or the minister or the Director of Youth. Because of the Covid-19 pandemic the CYF was postponed and it is happening later this month. We will have to engage the minister of youth or his representative to ensure that one of our members is one of the two national delegates,” Grant said.
Of concern to the GNYC is a draft National Youth Policy document, which was submitted during the term of the past administration.
“We don’t know where and at what stage it is at. The last we heard, which was about two years ago, is that it was supposed to have gone back to Cabinet for deliberations. Since then, we haven’t heard anything about this document.”
An action plan to accompany the document that was evidence-based was required and the previous government hired a foreign consultant to draft the action plan. The GNYC was instrumental in getting the views of youths into the action plan and the consultant pulled it together, Grant said. It was submitted to the Department of Youth.
“For there to be any clear directives and policy concerning youths there needs to be a policy document along with the implementation plan on where you want to go. I don’t know if the government has a clear policy document with an operational action plan to guide them.
If not, they will be acting in an ad hoc manner and probably they would be acting on their political agenda and we don’t want that.”
He added, “As a government they should not be acting only on a political agenda. They need civil society to help them to act on behalf of all the people and in this case on behalf of all the young people. You want a document that speaks not only to a political party but speaks to the whole of Guyana, what the youth of Guyana wants the government to do for them. Without that document they would be going around in circles. If you have a Department of Youth, you have to have a policy document that should be evidence-based, based on the perspectives of youth and the experience of the youth on the ground.” The youth population between the ages of 14 to 35 represents 60 per cent of the country’s population.
Non-partisan
According to Grant, the GNYC is an umbrella organisation of 20 youth groups and 500 individual members. “We can be perceived as political but we are a non-partisan organisation.” Since he has been at the head of the GNYC in 2019, he said he tries to ensure that all the projects the organisation undertakes are national in nature.
The pillars under which the GNYC functions are youth advocacy, youth and the electoral process and youth and governance.
As part of the youth and electoral process pillar, he said, the GNYC has been involved in voter education among the younger population and some of the marginalized groups such as Indigenous women in the 2015 regional and general elections, the 2016 local government elections and again in the 2020 regional and general elections. The voter education project was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The youth and electoral process pillar, he said, is one of the areas the GNYC has been strongest and as such was recognised by the Commonwealth Youth Awards for the voter education project in which focus was on educating first time voters and other voters under the need to vote and the process to vote.
“The concept was replicated in other parts of the Commonwealth Caribbean and in Kenya, Africa. The Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) can do so much and no more and because their documents can be difficult to understand at times, we try to work along with GECOM make them youth friendly so that people can understand. We have to look at the various literacy rates of the population. We cannot assume that people know so in some cases we use mock specimens, like replicating a voter booth. We did work not only in Georgetown but in some Indigenous communities. We have had good response and good feedback.”
One of the challenges faced with the voter education project, he said was that some young people were not too keen to work on it as volunteers or as part time staff because they wanted to “play safe” when the GNYC tried to involve them. “Even though we said we were non-partisan, they asked us if we were working with government or a political party. That is why we try to do other projects apart from voter education like getting involved in the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project sponsored by the Pan American Health Organisation so see us in a different light and be inclined to be more involved.”
Like other civil society organisations, Grant said, the GNYC is not immune to the polarization of the society by race that is manifested during the elections season and as such also focuses on educating young people about the need to vote on issues.
Because of their work in voter education, Grant said, “the main political parties have over time become suspicious of our activities and when they get into power they would try to not let our voices be heard because of their perception. We are aware of this and as a council we are concerned. We try our best to use the spaces that are available to us to make our voices heard.”
He continued: “Our governments are aware that part of the rule of democracy is empowerment of the people including civil society and for the voice of civil society to be heard and not try to shrink the spaces for their voices to be heard. We are here to help the government carry out its functions but in a transparent and accountable manner. As the saying goes, ‘Hand wash hand mek hand come clean’.”
Track record
He admitted that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport has three big portfolios. At the same time, he said although there may be a Department of Youth with a Director of Youth, they do not appear to be visible.
“I think the GNYC can help the Department of Youth to be more visible and also help it in its programming.”
Not aware of the youth work experience that personnel in the Department of Youth has, Grant said, the GNYC has a track record of youth work that has been visible in spaces such as the Caribbean Regional Youth Council and the Commonwealth Youth Council.
“We have some experience and some amount of informal training through the networks we have been involved in and through exposure from different organisations including United Nations organisations and the United States State Department so we can help the department in their youth programming.”
Under youth advocacy, the GNYC recently completed a whole-of-society approach project to fight the Covid-19 pandemic that was sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO). The whole-of-society approach includes civil society and the GNYC, Grant said, “was honoured to be one of those to partner with the WHO in social behaviour change messages concerning the preventative measures needed to bring the Covid-19 pandemic under control. One measure is heightened awareness of the need for vaccination.”
In the past the GYNC worked with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) with returning migrants from Venezuela to assist in providing shelter, care packages and helping to set up English as a second language programme.
Whitewater and Yarakita in the Mabaruma Sub-region in Region One-Barima/Waini and Charity in Region Two-Pomeroon/Supenaam were areas of focus. “Because we are an umbrella youth organisation for different youth-led and youth-focused organisations we support the UNHCR in the work we do in environmental and gender issues as well.”
He added, “In fact, we are part of the Spotlight Initiative to end Violence against Women and Girls. As a council we can advocate on any issue once one of our partner organisations is strong in a youth advocacy issue. We also try to support to help them get the funding they need to amplify their work through grant proposal training.”
According to Grant, the GNYC has a governance structure that is transparent that has a board of trustees and an executive council that represents the youth. “We are due for elections soon.”
