HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger, Luncheon and United States Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt, have begun discussions on the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID), Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) project.

Dr. Luncheon and Ambassador Hardt met on Thursday and held positive and constructive discussions on the LEAD project. Both sides have agreed to continue discussions next week with a view to charting the way forward.

The project was put on hold as discussions were agreed on between the Governments of Guyana and the United States (U.S.) with a view to commencing re-engagement of the project at a later date.

During a special press briefing on Thursday, shared between the two representatives, a joint statement was issued, stating thus, “The Governments of Guyana and the United States of America have agreed that the implementation of the activities of the USAID, LEAD project would be put on hold temporarily during the re-engagement on the design of that project the two sides have agreed would commence immediately.”

No time frame has yet been set for the completion of the re-engagement, but both sides welcomed the opportunity to re-engage on the project with the expectation of a mutually beneficial outcome. “I welcome the opportunity for us to move on in a structured way with regards to the USAID LEAD project and I want to believe that there are considerable expectations about a mutually beneficial outcome,” Dr. Luncheon said.

Echoing similar sentiments, the U.S. Ambassador said that his country welcomed the willingness of the Government to Guyana to re-engage in discussion on democracy and governance and in particular the LEAD project.

In July, 2013, the US launched the LEAD project without the formal sanction of the Guyana Government. The project’s non-approval was formally indicated to the relevant authorities on October 26, 2013. In spite of this, the USAID continued to implement the project, even as Government maintained that Guyana was committed to re-engaging the discussion process, but not when the activities under the LEAD project were still being implemented.