Mismanagement of funds, lack of jobs for youths, inadequate supply of medicines, a faulty education system and unfair distribution of land were some of the main problems identified at a key Region Four meeting on the poverty reduction strategy on Sunday.
The problems fall under five broad-based categories, which are; economic opportunities and employment creation; education; good governance; health; and housing, water and sanitation.
The meeting - to refine the region-wide consultations - was held at the North Georgetown Multilateral School in the presence of some 200 persons, who were later divided into five groups which further examined and discussed the problems. The groups were tasked with identifying other problems under the topics and coming up with solutions. They were also asked to vote on what they considered to be some of the important areas for the region.
This did not go down well with some persons who thought that the problems and solutions identified during the consultations held in the various areas should be the ones forwarded to the government as priorities for the entire region. However, after all the arguments, those attending decided to sit down and come up with the most critical problems and likely solutions.
Under economic opportunities and employment creation, it was found that the disabled could not obtain jobs easily and land titles for residential and farm land were hard to come by. The solutions to these two problems were for a government grant to create opportunities for the disabled and improved land lease allocation immediately. It was agreed that there was a high rate of unemployment and some undeveloped farmland existing. The general opinion was that should cottage industry legislation be implemented the number of unemployed persons would be reduced. It was also recommended that there should be improved drainage and irrigation to deal with the problem of undeveloped farmland.
Another priority problem identified was the lack of land development support and it was suggested that the regional democratic councils must have machine pools and make them available at a subsidized cost.
Education, governance and health
Some of the problems identified under education were low wages, lack of proper facilities and a lack of motivation leading to negative behaviour. The solutions suggested for these problems were that there should be incentives for teachers and that more equipment, materials and teaching aids should be made available, while there should be a re-examination of the education system in definition and scope.
Under good governance, some of the main problems identified were discrimination and political interference, mismanagement and poor financial management of the economy and corruption. It was found that there was need for consultation with communities to take place in every aspect of development to have consensus and for neutral independent enforcement agencies to monitor operations of national institutions so that there would be fairness in the discharge of their functions. To curb the problem of corruption it was suggested that there should be laws that require public officials to declare assets before, during and after holding office.
The most pressing problems under health identified were poor staffing, equipment and maintenance of health facilities and it was suggested that there be multi-skilled health personnel in each community and there should also be visiting health teams. Further, it was argued that there was poor distribution of drugs and supplies and to solve this problem it was forwarded that there be decentralization of the management of health services and distribution of medical supplies and drugs.
Another problem raised was the lack of environmental sanitation awareness by residents coupled with the lack of health education and wellness programmes such as fighting substance abuse, HIV and AIDS. The absence of rehabilitation centres was also noted. It was suggested that there be trained health educators in specific programmes such as substance abuse, HIV and AIDS and family planning. An increase in environmental health personnel and effective environmental programmes were also proposed.
Housing, water and sanitation
Under the housing, water and sanitation sector it was found that squatters needed land titles and that promises that land would be surveyed were not kept. It was also found that there was need for more low-income house lots and that in some areas there is a lack of water while in others there was low water pressure. Poor roads, drainage and flooding were also identified as problems. To solve these problems it was suggested that land should be surveyed and that a committee - decentralized from government - should be set up to look at housing. Also, there should be more pipelines to secure better water pressure, more wells, better roads and drainage. Minister of Public Works and Communication, Anthony Xavier, who attended the first half of the programme along with his colleague, Education Minister Dr Henry Jeffrey, told the gathering that the government has followed their discussions, read their submissions and noted their ideas for reducing poverty.
The minister said that poverty was of major concern to the government and stated that later, using the financial resources available through the Enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative, the government would respond to their prioritised agenda.
The poverty reduction consultations are required by the IMF/World Bank for countries like Guyana to tap into the enhanced HIPC programme. Consultations are underway in all other parts of the country.