The 2017-2021 Strategic Plan for the Social Cohesion Ministry will be presented to Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo today as the Ministry observes its second annual Social Cohesion Day.
“The aim is to allow Guyanese to reflect on the path taken since 2015 in pursuit of social cohesion and to be able to envision a socially cohesive country…the programme has been designed to bring together a cross-section of Guyanese to observe the celebration of some aspect of our diversity such as culture, religion, language, age and geographical background,” Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton said.
He added that the Prime Minister would be presented with the recently-completed strategic plan for the Ministry. The plan was formulated with assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
When asked about some of the highlights of the plan, Minister Norton related that one of the major suggestions was sensitisation and education on the workings of the Ministry. “First of all, we have to deal with sensitisation and education of the vision and of the mission of the Ministry…we have actually started doing that and they (citizens) have been calling us in the different villages and regions,” he said.
He noted that the response from citizens, particularly the youths, have been commendable with a renewed call for the outreaches to extend to more villages.
“It’s a new ministry; our expertise in the area is very limited: while we do have persons competent, well qualified, their numbers are limited. Our budgetary allocation we hope we can improve on,” Norton explained.
Social Cohesion Minister, Dr George Norton
In the 2017 Budget, the Social Cohesion Ministry was allocated $90.1 million for the execution of its mandate.
“There are provisions in the strategic plan to deal with the issue of more resources, but that is much more of a national governmental decision and you can bet that I will advocate for much more of that and make certain that we do bring to reality the objectives of our ministry,” he added.
He noted that the challenges of the Ministry were not only within the constraints of administration and resources, but also the thinking of the populace. “For instance, we have got the fight against old stigmas; for example, persons with different sexual orientation, we finding that you have people in the villages saying that while they do not have anything against it, they would not support it, but when we go down in the discussion looking at it from a personal point of view, then more and more persons are becoming aware,” he related.
However, the Minister noted that the Ministry was making headway in the fight against those stigmas and promoting cohesiveness.
The Social Cohesion Ministry was established after the May 2015 elections.
