At interactive forum…

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Sukhai-Campbell addressing the participants. Sitting at the head table is Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manickchand.

THE Ministry of Labour, Human Services and Social Security, in collaboration with the Women’s Affairs Bureau, yesterday hosted a forum in recognition of the important role of women in development.

It was part of the ongoing consultations on the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS), which aims to transform the national economy to mesh with a new global climate change regime.

The interactive session was held in the Conference Room of Carnegie School of Economics, D’Urban and High Streets, Georgetown, where it gathered together a wide cross-section of groups to express views on the draft that was unveiled by President Bharrat Jagdeo.

Minister of Human Services and Social Security, Ms. Priya Manickchand commended the event and emphasised that women are generally affected, differently from men, by most issues.

“As women, I believe that we are affected differently, sometimes worst off and so I believe our women are a more vulnerable group than their male counterparts when we are dealing with these issues.”

Manickchand said the documentation speaks to how Guyanese, as good human beings, can help in saving the world and developing it while, at the same time, innovatively bringing, to Guyana, benefits for this very necessary action.

Here we have a strategy that allows us not only to be good citizens of the world but to benefit from that goodness and it would depend on us, the people of Guyana, how we benefit and how we put these obvious rewards to use in our country,” she posited.

Manickchand, pointing out that the document is not written in stone, encouraged the participants to ask questions, make suggestions, suggest deletions and share the information with their respective organisations.

We want to hear from all of Guyana about how this can be improved and how the benefits can be brought to the people of Guyana,” she explained.

Participants at the session

Manickchand said the Government is very keen on hearing the views of Guyanese across the board.

She continued: “We recognise that women will have different needs and different views than men and I think it is important that we see ourselves as a group of persons not separate from the entire society but having separate views and different kinds of views to offer to any holistic consultation.

Effective
We believe in the benefit and effectiveness of consultation but that can only be effective if you participate in the way that makes it meaningful.”

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Mrs. Pauline Sukhai, said women must want to participate in the formulation of the country’s development strategies.

I think that is a very important action which all of us should want to do. Let us not believe, for one minute, that it is not necessary to engage in consultation, dialogue and conversation on matters of development,” she asserted.

Sukhai said organisations should include, on their agendas, activities that foster their constituents’ contribution to the development of the country’s agenda.

I threw this out to the women since the LCDS did not actually detail how, as a group, we will contribute, participate and benefit and, therefore, as we take this conversation forward to our groups, organisations, institutions and agencies, we need to examine and re-examine what I have just said,” she stated.

According to her: “We must also feel that we are a group which should be able to participate directly and also as we continue to participate directly in the social and productive sectors in our country, we must also want to examine our role in examining how can we, within the LCDS, when it is being implemented, be able to engage ourselves.”

Sukhai said women can participate in the research stage which will be an important area, seeing that, already, the data is saying to Guyana and the region that women are participating more aggressively.

She attested that women form a very core group of educated human resource and, consequently, represent all the different sectors.

Sukhai said women seeking to enhance their profile and professional pursuit can contribute towards the new emerging sectors.

It is also necessary for leaders of organisations to ensure that your membership is presented with all the larger and macro issues which, sometimes, appear to us to be complex,” she said.

The minister also noted that the LCDS presents an important mix of policies and programmes which is up for debate and Guyanese across the country have already joined the debate and consultation.

Committed
They have also committed to move this conversation forward and, therefore, they will be discussing the priority issues that affect them,” she said.

it is similar to the experiences which we have already gone through, in relation to the discussion on the National Development Strategy, which comes to an end next year and I think this strategy will take its place as the new strategy to take Guyana forward,” Sukhai said.

She said feedback is very important to continue designing and refining the draft strategy.

you move now from here, we hope that you will be able to provide us today and in the days ahead with feedback from your constituency or membership, so that we will be able to channel those contributions and feedback to the technical team for examination and review and I am sure innovative ideas on the concept could arise out of these discussions, which will help the technical team to really fine tune this strategy,” Sukhai remarked.

She exhorted the women to start thinking ahead, saying there are expectations and opportunities which the strategy intends to generate and stimulate in the various sectors, as Guyana moves to pay some more additional attention to infrastructure development.

Sukhai said one of the areas outlined in the strategy is investing in high potential low carbon sectors, which is another opportunity for women.

are the low carbon sectors which Government will want to focus on and we need to let women know, very early, so that they can begin to look within themselves and within organisations to enhance their preparedness and readiness for the implementation stage,” she said.

, at no time, will we have, in front of us, a group of women in our population, who still find it very difficult to fit within any development programme.”

Sukhai appealed to women to begin to focus on developing skills such as computer knowledge.

She mentioned eco-tourism and said it will set the foundation for a number of hinterland communities, families and women to participate in agriculture.

I think, in the agricultural sector, it will be the most enhanced area for women,” Sukhai observed.

She continued: “There are, currently, many governmental programmes which will foster us to make us prepare ourselves when the different levels and phases of implementation of this strategy step in and one is Guyana’s competitiveness strategy.

Can we, as a group, really have any impact on the design of this strategy?” Sukhai asked and answered : ‘I do believe we can’.”

She said: “We have been able to positively make impact on many other developmental challenges and issues and, therefore, the development and the design of the LCDS is another landmark and another huge and significant developmental challenge which, I think, women can really zero in on.”

The Minister reiterated that, at the end of the day, the strategy speaks to livelihood and transformation of communities and the national economy.

&in any issue, any challenge, the women are the first to really feel the brunt or impact of those developmental challenges.

The LCDS is an opportunity for us to really display the strength of Guyanese women in putting forward our ideas, working out our concerns and fears and to recommend and suggest, to this whole consultation, things which we feel need to be considered and be included in the much more detail as this strategy moves forward to being drafted and crafted for His Excellency when he goes to Copenhagen,” Sukhai proffered.

She said: “I think, if we can, as a group of women, begin to address our participation and contribution in the formulation and design of this strategy, we would have accomplished, for our future generation, a very important task which, I think, is heading to secure a much better future for our children, our women, our families, our communities and the nation at large.”

A technical briefing, on climate change and the concept of the country’s LCDS, was done by a representative of the Office of Climate Change before the floor was opened for questions, recommendations and concerns.