I HAD a conversation with an older friend this past week that made me think for a bit. He contended that youth are positioned in a time period where they have more leeway to have their voices heard and to effect change than they have ever had before. And though this is far from enough, it is a great start.

More importantly, the point he drove home is that politics is not the only way to effect positive change or wide-reaching (positive) change. In a way, I think I knew this, but maybe I never gave it too much thought because I was so invested in the thought of using politics as the avenue to effect change.

The next logical question would have been: What are other ways of effecting change? If youth are so positioned to effect change, how do they do it- aside from using politics?

In addition to unleashing a diatribe on why youth in Guyana do not have too many effective leaders who illustrate an array of ways to effect this positive change, the friend said: “Go out on the road and talk to people- Listen to their concerns- make sense of their suggestions- and empower them to help to effect their own change. These are just simple ways of connecting with people individually and working collaboratively to make things better.”

I suppose, while I would like government to intervene and craft (and thereafter implement) policies that are tailored towards fostering development- it’s not totally up to them. And really if we did wait on the policymakers to render assistance in every instance, then we would be waiting for a long, long time.

It is in this context that I appreciate the work of volunteers all across Guyana. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but there seems to be some volunteer fever that has enveloped primarily young people all across this country. For me, personally, I think this is an avenue that my people are exploring to see how they can effect change in their individual spaces.

The International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, more commonly referred to as International Volunteer Day, was observed on December 5. On December 8, the Department of Youth recognised volunteers across Guyana (you know, Saturday being a more flexible day and all). Youth are moving in droves, into communities, to get stuff done and I think it is really important that their work is acknowledged.

Then on that note, there comes the matter of direct focus on national efforts to decentralise services in Guyana.

The government has allocated some $1.5B in the 2019 budget, to fund current and capital projects under the Department of Citizenship, with the aim of continuing the decentralisation of key citizenship services.

Through this, there are plans to commence official services at the spanking new passport offices at New Amsterdam and Linden in January of 2019, and during this same year, the construction of passport office in Lethem will commence.

This is just the most recent announcement of how services will be decentralised. Adding to this are the moves to establish capital towns in the various regions-with the aim of making public services accessible to citizens in the regions.

You see, with these towns it is expected that members of the community acquire more agency towards getting things done. It is also hoped that the concept of local democracy and governance would become entrenched so that the people would really become empowered.

The nexus I’m trying to illustrate here is that I have become accustomed to the centralised way of doing things. But I have found that there is an unrivalled brilliance in exploring the decentralising of resources.

Maybe, just maybe, there are innate connections in so many things around us that we fail to explicitly comprehend. At the National level, perhaps it will lead to the empowerment of people and perhaps also make daily life much easier. And on the community level, perhaps there is greater leeway for more persons to effect (positive) changes. For now, I’ll wait to see how well the decentralising of resources actually works out.