Dear Editor,

MY attention was drawn to an interview on PNC’s Nation Watch in which Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G), Mr. Vincent Alexander, contended that the UN’s International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024) was never about the “little things” but rather “big things”.

This is what he said during that interview which was aired a few days ago:
“The reality is we (IDPADA-G) have taken people to be trained to process their stuff hence Mocha started their Market Day. We’ve started the big market day in the avenue… We’ve brought 100 vendors for craft and we trained them. We started to give every organisation something every year to start small projects. The fact of the matter is that the Decade is not about these little things. The Decade is about big things – institutional and legal frameworks, that can then give the people themselves the opportunities.”

By Mr. Alexander’s own admission, activities surrounding training and capacity building for Afro-Guyanese, and promoting economic empowerment through the distribution of grants to small organisations were the “little things” that the Decade and IDPADA-G are somehow “not about”.
Editor, sometime around 2016, IDPADA-G emerged out of a ‘Core Group’ as the Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Decade. But, its scope of work was limited according to its own documents.

The Charter of IDPADA-G outlines it’s goal as follows: “The Goal of IDPADA, Guyana is to craft the Guyana plan for the International Decade for People of African Descent, in keeping with the provisions of the UN’s Resolution; and as mandated by His Excellency President [David Granger] at the Cuffy 250 Committee Annual Forum on August 07[sic], 2016, inclusive of mechanisms for implementing, superintending and monitoring the plan, as may be deemed necessary”.

At the end of 2019, three years after IDPADA-G’s emergence and two years after it began receiving an annual subvention from the Government, the group produced the 2020-2024 Strategic Plan and an Implementation Plan. These documents outline mechanisms for implementing, superintending and monitoring the Strategic Plan, in keeping with the goal of the organisation/company.

Importantly, IDPADA-G’s scope of work, according to its plans, did not involve implementation and or monitoring of the Strategic Plan. It bears repeating that IDPADA-G’s role, according to its own Charter, was limited to crafting the Strategic Plan and outlining mechanisms for implementation and monitoring.

Having achieved that goal by delivering the Strategic and Implementation Plans, which help to establish and lay the foundation for the institutional and legal frameworks as articulated by Mr Alexander, the work of IDPADA-G should have ended in 2019.

Instead, the group continued to exist without a mandate – having already delivered its Strategic Plan – drawing down an annual subvention of $100 million until it was discontinued by the Government in 2022.
Rather than complaining and challenging the cessation of the subvention, that group should be thanking the taxpayers of this country and the Government of Guyana for the bonus it received for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Yours faithfully,
Ravin Singh