GUYANA needs a Development Strategy as a matter of utmost priority. We cannot continue to move along in the absence of a clear, defined path of what constitutes development: how we are going to get there, and the resources needed to get us there.

Outside of the Feed, Clothe and House Programme (FCHP) during the Forbes Burnham Administration, which had clear guide and timelines on what will be done, how it will be done, and the resources needed to get it done, this country has been without an indigenous development programme.

Importance is being paid to the fact that the FCHP, which was supported by the trade union community, sought to put the people at the centre of our developmental thrust. In involving the people, it brought about a sense of ownership and appreciation, which are important ingredients in the development of any country.

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which was conceptualised and executed by the Desmond Hoyte Administration, set out to realign the economy, with the Private Sector being described as the engine of growth consistent with the neo-liberal global push at the time. This ideology, which relaxed regulations and common sense rules of engagement, subordinated the role of the State and the people to that of money, the result of which saw a growing disparity between rich and poor. It should be said that, by its very nature, the private sector’s primary focus is that of making profit, which means that other important considerations — such as the people and environment — are often subsumed.

Inasmuch as governments have continuously made the case that they are subjected to the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and its attendant arms, this did not hold true in 1999 when government was challenged by the workers.

In 1999, Bharrat Jagdeo, as Finance Minister in the Janet Jagan Administration, decided that he would not pay increases to public servants, which led to a 57-day strike by public employees involving four unions. The strike saw government agreeing to arbitration, and the results that flow therefrom were taken to the IMF, which conceded and agreed that the award should be respected. This brought an end to the notion that the IMF’s opinions and pronouncements are cast in stone.

The success of the FCHP and the major adjustment on the SAP in 1999 are two cases that should be used as examples in the pursuit of any development in Guyana.

As public statements continue to be made by the APNU+AFC Administration that the country is pursuing development through a Green Economy, it needs to be said that the Green Economy is a macro policy built on three pillars and guided by the Human Development Index. The three pillars: labour policies, sustainable development and the environment, are intertwined and cannot be pursued independent of each other. Most importantly, this policy places people at the centre of development, and measures such in relation to socio- economic, cultural, and political growth and development.

This is the type of conversations and engagements the nation awaits from the political operatives, in order that a programme can be conceptualised, developed and implemented. What we need to know is what a development strategy of such nature would look like, and how we would garner and utilise our resources (human, natural, capital and money) to this end.

I continue to follow the weekly column in these newspapers addressing the Green Economy. Outside of making known theoretical positions from various authorities for and against this policy, the nation is still to devise an indigenous programme consistent with the policy.

For instance, is Guyana going to pursue alternative medicine as a sustainable development plank, given that we are a highly forested country with several species of plants that have proven desired therapeutic effects? If this is a path that would be pursued, it requires knowing what systems would be put in place — such as identifying what exists; extracting, replanting, research and development, incentives to those who desire to pursue opportunities in this sector, marketing, and so forth.

These are the conversations that we need to be having. Planting a tree here or there falls short of what the Green Economy Policy dictates. To pursue conversations abstract of what needs to be done, how it will be done, who and what will be involved, means such an economy would never be realised.

It is instructive, as the Green Economy is being touted, last week saw the dismissal of workers employed at the Demerara Timbers Limited for exercising their constitutional right in taking industrial action. Guyana has to be mindful that it would not be allowed to flout internationally acceptable labour policies, which include upholding fundamental rights and freedoms; that is a pillar of the Green Economy.

The time has come to move from the abstract to the concrete.