-sees commitments to Norway funds
THE RECENTLY-concluded National Toshaos Council (NTC) Meeting will be remembered for being the forum at which the mechanism for accessing monies that could alter Guyana’s development trajectory were finalised, and unease about the coming to fruition of the Norway funds put to rest.
At this meeting, which lasted five days last week at the Guyana International Conference Centre, the first practical manifestation of the LCDS funds was realised, with Government outlining how it will fund projects that come directly from the Amerindian communities. Money for the first set of approved projects will be disbursed in the first quarter of 2011.
Groundbreaking too was the commitment given by the international financial institutions that they would not delay the transfer of funds from Washington. This assurance came from World Bank representative in Guyana, Giorgio Valentini, and IDB Representative, Marco Nicola.
Valentini said Thursday during the NTC meet that the World Bank has gone past the stage of decision-making, and was ready to transfer the funds, while Nicola said the IDB was ready to work with the projects and had already initiated the machinery in Washington. The latter however noted that the IDB is a bureaucracy and that certain systems have to be adhered to.
The money, in excess of US$30 million less US$700,000 from Guyana’s Memorandum of Understanding with the Kingdom of Norway, has been transferred into an account in Washington held by the World Bank. This was done around October 9.
Once the details are ironed out, the money for the Amerindian projects will be transferred to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), which will be the body to disburse the finances to the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs for onward disbursement to the various Amerindian villages.
The Village Councils of each village must sign a contract between itself and the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs, as part of the fiduciary arrangements of the GRIF (Guyana REDD-plus Investment Fund).
According to the GRIF Fact Sheet, pending the creation of an international REDD+ mechanism, the GRIF is an effort to create an innovative climate finance mechanism which balances national sovereignty over investment priorities with ensuring that REDD+ funds adhere to the Partner Entities’ financial, environmental and social safeguards.
The Fact Sheet goes on to explain that the GRIF will receive payments for forest climate services provided by Guyana, and transfer these payments and any investment income earned on these payments, net of any administrative costs of the Trustee and the Secretariat and any administrative fees to the Partner Entities, for projects and activities that support the implementation of Guyana’s LCDS.
According to the Administration Agreement between the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the World Bank’s International Development Association, the Transfer Agreements between the trustee and the partner entity must be done according to set of guidelines.
It said that each Partner Entity, such as the IDB or a UN agency, shall be responsible for the use of the GRIF funds transferred to it and activities carried out therewith in accordance with its policies and procedures, including those in respect of procurement of goods and services, financial management, environmental and social safeguards, reporting arrangements and its framework to combat fraud and corruption.
The Partner Entity must maintain books, records, documents and other evidence in accordance with its usual accounting its usual accounting procedures to sufficiently substantiate the use of the GRIF funds transferred to it.
The Partner Entity must also report to the Steering Committee annually on the progress of implementation of its activities, results achieved compared to planned results as well as to its contribution to the achievement of the planned results of the GRIF as such and the financial status of Projects and activities under its responsibility. Further, within 6 months of the completion date of the Project, the entity must provide the Steering Committee with a final report of the Project.
The entity must also ensure that each Project proposal it submits to the Steering Committee is consistent with the LCDS and the overall results framework of the GRIF once such framework is approved by the Steering Committee.