AFTER THE varied interventions at the Climate Change Summit in Cancun, Mexico last week, as well as a related reaction by a World Bank official, it is to be hoped that fresh and determined efforts will be made for progress in the much-delayed release of Norway’s funding for Guyana’s imaginative forest preservation project.
Trading verbal public exchanges have their value. What is, however, quite essential at this stage is that some of the envisaged US$250 million so encouragingly pledged to Guyana by the Norwegian government, and consistent with its known commendable commitment to international climate change, should begin to flow to this country.
After all, while the so-called ‘devil’ might be in the details, the reality is that having entered into a formal comprehensive agreement, based  on prior negotiations, for funding of the Guyana forest protection project, a full year has passed and, in the words of President Bharrat Jagdeo, “we have not seen a single cent expended as yet…”
By mutual agreement, the World Bank was assigned responsibility for supervision for the phased release of the initial allocation of US$30 million of Norway’s US$250million funding commitment for the forest project, and a steering committee established for this purpose.
Guyana is not known to have raised any objections for the functioning of the Bank’s Steering Committee on which are representatives of this country and the donor nation, Norway.
While the bureaucracy of international financial institutions often grind comparatively slowly, it would have come as a surprise to learn from the World Bank’s Director for the Caribbean region, Yvonne Tsikata, that any release of the US$30 million Norway fund must first await the ‘green light’ or official approval by the Steering Committee. Okay.
If, therefore, as explained at the Cancun Summit last week by President Jagdeo, Guyana had met stated conditions for release of the fund, and that his government has been continuing to honour its end of the overall US$250 million project, then there needs to be some explanation that goes beyond the initial response attributed to the Bank’s Caribbean Director last week that “there had been some misconceptions…”
Misconceptions? For our part, we prefer to await any response that would most likely be forthcoming, either from the government of Norway or Guyana, if not the World Bank as well, before offering any further comment at this stage.
Much is at stake, as both Norway and Guyana well appreciate.