PRESIDENT, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali in a well-prepared and articulated address to hemispheric leaders at the Summit of the Americas, urged countries to put aside political and ideological differences and rise to the challenges of poverty and underdevelopment in the region.

According to President Ali, the full potential of the region still remains largely unfulfilled and posited that only a holistic and well-integrated approach to development could result in a resolution to the myriad economic and social problems faced by the region.

In a well-researched presentation drawing on several reports from regional and international institutions including the World Bank, President Ali made a convincing case for greater attention by the United States and the more economically advanced countries to growing inequities in the hemisphere especially in the areas of food insecurity and energy disparity.

US President Joe Biden had earlier told business leaders of the hemisphere that conservative ‘trickle-down’ economic policies are a failure. According to President Biden, the past few years have ‘exposed the weakness of prioritizing short-term profits and working exclusively to maximize efficiency.’

Facts matter, and as President Ali noted, it is time for leaders of North, South and Central America and the Caribbean to have fact-based discussions to lift people of the hemisphere to a position of prosperity. What is needed, according to President Ali, is the need for tough conversations on the best possible decisions for the people of the region.

The Summit, which is being held under the theme ‘Building sustainable, resilient and equitable future’ takes place at a time when the region is faced with an existential threat due to climate change, the continuing COVI-19 pandemic and the undermining of democracy in several countries including Guyana.

President Ali took the opportunity to thank the Organization of American States (OAS) for the role it played in thwarting the attempted rigging of the March 2020 General and Regional elections in Guyana. Democracy, he said, is inseparable from the realization of the Summit goals.

With supporting data, President Ali drew attention to the deepening crisis facing the region in several critical areas which included climate change, the adverse impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on learning outcomes, job losses, food insecurity, and widening income gaps and called for collective action based on a realistic analysis of the current state of affairs in the region.

“We are living among these challenges in a region that has the potential to be fully energy secure, bring prosperity to every home, have the greatest access to natural resources, abundant land and access to water resources to ensure food security; enough rain forests and technology to make a meaningful contribution to climate change, enough access to finances to bridge inequality and support development for all,” President Ali said. Despite these vast resources, the region is still unable to realize its full potential.

Guyana, meanwhile, has been doing an excellent job in terms of deforestation which stands at 0.05 percent, one of the lowest in the world.
Guyana, however, despite its recent successes in terms of accelerated growth and development is committed to a process of shared development. The economy is projected to double within the next two years as the country now has the unenviable record as the world’s fastest-growing economy.

This economic ‘tsunami’ is expected to lift, as it were, all boats, not only in Guyana but in the region as a whole. Guyana, according to President Ali, ‘belongs to the family of humanity and we are ready to make our contribution to that family. We cannot be reckless and we will not be irresponsible in managing these resources in the interests of the world and in the interests of this region.’

This is indeed big and noble thinking on the part of President Ali, who must be commended for his contribution to the hemispheric discourse on the way forward. His presentation at the Summit of the Americas has certainly found resonance with regional leaders and in some fundamental ways can be regarded as a blueprint for the economic and social agenda of the hemisphere as a whole.