A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) is proposing a new ‘social contract’ in order to promote national unity, ensure human safety and foster economic development in Guyana.APNU, in a statement yesterday, said the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration has demonstrated that it is incapable of solving the country’s current crises on its own.

As such, it proposes a new ‘social contract’ by which the major sections of society – including the government; political Opposition; trade unions; private sector and civil society – can come together to seek agreement  on a broad national programme to move the country forward.

“A ‘social contract’ could be the main means of combining the talents of a wider constituency and of creating the conditions for social cooperation and economic progress,” the main Opposition party in Parliament stated.
It said “the three-fold purpose of such a contract” would be to reach a broad consensus on the goals of national development; to establish a sustainable institutional architecture and to create effective policy instruments for the achievement of the objectives of the ‘contract.’

APNU now calls on the PPP/C administration to honour its obligations to:

**         undertake and continue tripartite consultations with workers’ and employers’ organisations in order to promote increased production and productivity in accordance with The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community;
**         establish, in accordance with CARICOM’s Charter of Civil Society for the Caribbean Community, “… a framework for genuine consultation among the social partners in order to reach common understandings on and support for the objectives, contents and implementation of national economic and social programmes and their respective roles and responsibilities in good governance”, and,
**         strengthen the mechanisms for tripartite consultation in accordance with ILO Convention No. 150 on Labour administration, 1978 that provides for an effective system of Labour Administration. These functions and responsibilities can be coordinated properly with the participation of workers and employers and their organisations.

APNU also calls on the PPP/C to seriously re-examine the prospects for the future relationship between citizens and the state. It proposes that a new ‘social contract’ be agreed upon in order to address Guyana’s pressing political, economic and social problems and to foster greater unity, security and progress.