— utilising 2016 CHDR recommendations

THE Government of Guyana (GoG) is working with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to ensure that policies are inclusive to provide a better future for young girls, since securing the future of the country’s young girls means addressing poverty in all its forms.

According to the United Nations Fund for Population Activities’ (UNFPA’s) State of the World Population 2016 Report, there are 7,000 ten-year-old girls in Guyana. These girls are the future of the country, but they are also at a vulnerable point in their lives.

The UNFPA has undertaken to secure a better future for girls worldwide through the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In the Caribbean, women and young girls are vulnerable to poverty and inequality, according to the UNDP’s 2016 Caribbean Human Development Report (CHDR). The report estimates that 18.6 per cent of Guyana’s population is indigent.

Regional Adviser at the UNDP, Kenroy Roach, believes that addressing the root causes of poverty and inequality is inessential to secure a bright future, particularly for young girls.

“We believe that you need to improve women and youths’ — young women in particular — access to services as a way of removing or improving their health outcomes and improving the health challenges they see later in life,” Roach told the Government Information Agency (GINA).

Guyana, meanwhile, has been making strides in addressing inequality. The CHDR noted that Guyana is an outstanding example for the Caribbean in its effort to reduce inequality, with 31.3 per cent of seats in Parliament being held by women. But, the CHDR noted, ensuring greater female participation in the labour force remains a challenge for the country.

For younger girls, ineffective school systems, teenage pregnancy and violence are the risk factors that make them vulnerable.

Roach told GINA that it is important that “protective factors” are part of “public policies to protect youth, but in particular young girls”.

Despite the country’s gross national income, Guyana was credited by the CHDR for better-than-expected performance in the areas of child nutrition, infant mortality, and average schooling rates; primary school dropout rate and gross secondary school matriculation. These are positive indicators for the future of Guyana’s young girls.

Government ministers and stakeholders had earlier this year held a round-table discussion to develop programmes particularly geared towards young people and young adults.

Guyana still has to improve on its maternal mortality, youth unemployment and teenage pregnancy rates, the report indicated.

Roach noted that Guyana and the wider Caribbean can rely on the tools made available by the UNDP to “help the life chances of young women”.
“We’re looking at what extent sectorial planning — whether it’s in education, it’s in health, it’s in infrastructure — how those plans are connected to the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals); which targets of the SDGs they are connected to; and then what are the gaps. Importantly, what are the structural, what are the policy, what the programmatic gaps that exist; and then UNDP supports governments in developing the policies and programmes to fill those gaps,” Roach explained.

To secure the future of young girls and address their challenges, Finance Minister Winston Jordan has said, comprehensive polices buttressed by a sustainable economic base are needed. Government has been working to ensure that its policies are inclusive of all vulnerable groups. The CHDR noted that Guyana’s economy has registered positive economic growth over the last 10 years.

Guyana is one of the 193 countries that have pledged to achieve, over the next 15 years, the 17 SDGs which underpin the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.