Report urges Govt, civil society to partner with Diaspora on key development projects

– recommends creation of digital portal to facilitate dialogue with Diaspora

With approximately half of all Guyanese living overseas, a critical report has urged the Government to aggressively seek to build partnerships with the Guyana Diaspora, recommending collaboration on several stand-alone projects to develop the country and the creation of a “cloud portal.”
Founder of www.GuyanaWorx.com, Salaudeen Nausrudeen created and launched the “cloud-based portal,” in September. His company is a bridge/portal connecting employers in Guyana with job seekers from around the world, especially the skilled and experienced Guyanese Diaspora population in the US, Canada, the Caribbean and further afield.
According to the report, which was done by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Guyana has one of the highest emigration rates in the world, with some 30,000 persons leaving annually. It is a crisis, the report noted, which must be addressed.
The CSIS noted that efforts to deal with the problem have in the past been hampered by a lack of consistent effort and political will. The Center nevertheless noted that with the onset of oil and gas, a golden opportunity is being presented to the new People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government to stem the brain drain.
It was therefore recommended that Guyana’s public and Private Sector seek to collaborate with the diaspora on transformative projects that would fall under the rubric of a “Guyana Global” initiative.
The Guyana Global initiative would be facilitated by the creation of a digital, cloud-based portal with an online community of diaspora experts to serve as the framework and a formal means of communication between Guyana and the diaspora.
The report suggested that the portal be accessed on the internet through an app and include content management software, discussion boards and software that would enable project development, tracking and reporting, training sessions and workshops. Other Information and Communications Technology (ICT) options for accessing the portal include Zoom, Webex, Vimeo and CRM.
“Development of this portal would be guided and managed by experts in the field of systems software and information technology (IT), both from the diaspora and from Guyana. Such experts from the diaspora have already been engaged in the early discussions and planning of this initiative,” the report stated.
“This initial effort would need to be defined carefully and led by a group of committed individuals, both from the diaspora and Guyana. A leadership/steering group would need to be established to guide the process of organising the Guyana Global initiative. The initiative’s leaders would need to establish their own goals, objectives, code of ethics, and means of operation, as well as its own makeup,” the report added.

Projects
According to the report, there are a number of potential areas of cooperation. For one, the report cited the opportunity for collaboration with the diaspora to promote an advanced, cutting edge health sector that would focus heavily on primary care.
Another area of cooperation cited by the report was the promotion of a world-class, competitive education system at all levels that would focus on reaching all over Guyana and linked to overseas-based institutions of higher learning.
“Explore approaches to integrating Indigenous peoples more directly and effectively into the development process in Guyana using diaspora expertise and experience. Promote effective approaches to address critical environmental issues, including Guyana’s low coastal plain, 9000 square kilometers of territory that lie below sea level and in almost constant threat of flooding.”
“Explore the development of an expanded agro-industrial sector with export potential. Explore ways to empower young people, especially marginalized youth, to play a more active role in contributing to and benefitting from national development, including through engaging younger generations in the diaspora through effective use of technology and social media, as well as innovative approaches to mentoring,” the report also recommended.
The Center also suggested that the diaspora be engaged as Government and civil society find ways of promoting multi-ethnic, social cohesion while looking at policy examples of multiculturalism in other countries such as Canada. The Center was of the view that collaboration could also be held in the areas of constitutional and electoral reform.
“Promote entrepreneurship and investment, including by diaspora members, in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), as well as in other sectors. Promote efficiency and transparency of Government operations, including e-Government initiatives that are not yet well-established in Guyana,” the CSIS also recommended.

Policy
The former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government had announced in 2017 that it would be carrying out consultations with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Guyana diaspora, with the view of creating a diaspora engagement strategy.
That strategy was created, but it went nowhere and in July 2018, then Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge was forced to admit that the policy was languishing before Cabinet, due to other priorities and “absent-mindedness.”
“That paper has been before Cabinet for the longest while, and Cabinet has not been able to look at it for reasons that have to do with priority, and perhaps a little bit of absent-mindedness; because it’s been done a long time ago,” Greenidge had said at the time.
The CSIS report speaks to this, noting that the absent-minded way the former APNU/AFC Government treated the diaspora engagement strategy paper speaks to a lack of commitment from them in improving engagements with the diaspora.
“The Guyanese Government, in organizing new efforts to better understand the experience of its own diaspora, would be well advised to consider organizing a more serious effort to integrate diaspora issues and resources into the country’s bureaucratic structure.”
“The Diaspora Unit within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has in recent years involved a relatively small commitment of human and financial resources, and as a result, its engagement with diaspora communities has been extremely limited and not particularly effective.”
Since taking power in August, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Government has touted the need to engage the diaspora and increase collaboration. There has been talk of using Guyana’s various consulates across the world to open more doors for the diaspora to engage with authorities.
The party has a track record in seeking to engage the diaspora, with successive PPP Administrations reaching out to the diaspora and implementing certain systems aimed at attracting them to return or engage in some way with their homeland.
For example, the remigrant scheme was designed to give every Guyanese desirous of returning home an opportunity to be exempted from certain taxes once they decide to settle permanently here.
Many remigrants have already taken advantage of this facility. As part of its massive housing drive, the former PPP Government had also developed lands that remigrants could have accessed at affordable prices.
The mass exodus of Guyanese started in the early 1960s under the Forbes Burnham dictatorship when the economy was facing total collapse. There were no proper jobs; social services were almost non-existent, and there was a sense of hopelessness all over the country.