Introduction
Two remarkable reports on Guyana were separately published by two leading international organizations towards the end of the first year of Guyana’s First Oil. These were the Inter-American Development Bank, IADB’s, Traversing a Slippery Slope: Guyana’s Oil Opportunity, Infrastructure and Energy Sector, Technical Note, IADB TN 1994, August 2020; and the World Bank Group, A Pivotal Moment for Guyana: Realizing the Opportunities, Systematic Country Diagnostic, SCD, November 2020.
Written for general audiences these do not appear to be widely read within Guyana, judging from the “noise and nonsense” circulating in locally based exchanges. I have referenced, cited and otherwise treated with the IADB Report on many occasions to date. Today I use information in the World Bank study to frame my presentation on Guyana’s poverty status and my rationale for juxtaposing this to the country’s expected windfall revenues/earnings.