Waging Peace:  Guyana

Encouraging Sustainable Development and International Cooperation

After the 1992 elections – the first free and fair elections in more than 28 years – the government of Guyana invited the Global Development Initiative (1993-2006)  to assist in formulating a comprehensive vision and development strategy to gain the support of the international donor community. The process began in December 1992 with President Cheddi Jagan's participation in the initiative's first Development Cooperation Forum. The conference explored how to enhance international trade, aid, agriculture, and other policies for development for newly emerging democracies like Guyana.

Following the forum, the government of Guyana and donors invited the initiative to facilitate preparation for a major donor conference specifically for Guyana under the auspices of the Caribbean Group for Cooperation in Economic Development, chaired by the World Bank. The conference brought together international financial institutions, bilateral donors, and government representatives. With the Center's assistance, the government presented a policy framework that led to an additional $320 million in aid from bilateral donors for the next three years. However, donors stated that a more comprehensive strategy would be needed for Guyana to attract further aid and investment.

From 1995-1996, Guyana launched efforts to craft a comprehensive strategy for social and economic development. The Ministry of Finance, with assistance from the initiative, coordinated the first draft of the National Development Strategy. The draft NDS benefited from the views of more than 250 Guyanese from government, business, academia, trade unions, nongovernmental organizations, and the environmental movement who took part in some 20 working groups. Each group produced a strategy for its respective sector; these strategies were compiled and made available to the public for comment via the Internet and public seminars. As part of the initiative's wider efforts to model a new approach to development cooperation, Guyana's NDS process was reviewed in Atlanta at the Carter Center's second Development Cooperation Forum in 1996.

Guyana's young democracy experienced a setback in 1997, when the opposition, in an environment of heightened ethnic tensions, rejected election results. People emphasized the need for processes to bring the country together and felt the National Development Strategy had a major role to play and urged the major parties to endorse it. Considerable feedback on the NDS had been generated through the Internet, public seminars, and reviews by international agencies and experts. With support from The Carter Center, the government invited a broad group of civic and business leaders to review the feedback and produce a revised version of the NDS. This group, known as the NDS Committee, successfully broadened the base of political support for the NDS by undertaking extensive consultations and meetings to produce the revised NDS. The revised NDS, a 10-year plan that not only addresses economic needs but also health, education, the environment, governance, and human rights, was finalized and presented to the president in 2000, who then presented it to the Parliament.

Guyana's government used the NDS as the basis for its Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, which is required by the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and donors for international aid. Guyana's PRSP was approved by donors as the short-term framework for international cooperation in May 2002. Donors remain interested in seeing the NDS approved by Parliament as Guyana's long-term development framework.

National elections took place again in March 2001, monitored by The Carter Center. While the NDS was not debated in Parliament before the elections, the NDS was resubmitted to the Parliament for debate and approval in August 2001. However, a dialogue process between the major political parties broke down in March 2002, and the opposition began a boycott of Parliament without progress on the NDS. National consensus on the NDS remains elusive and a goal of The Carter Center.