GIVE JAGDEO A BREAK!

Jul 22, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The only initiative that has been called the Jagdeo Initiative is the one being promoted within the Caribbean Community dealing with agriculture.
The Low Carbon Development Strategy has been originated by President Jagdeo but it is not being called a “Jagdeo Initiative”, neither is the demand for a Freedom of Information Act being labelled as an AFC Initiative.
We can hardly speak today of an original idea, but we can speak of a new initiative.
Initiatives must be distinguished from the ideas contained within.  Initiatives can be original while the ideas contained within are rarely novel.
Take for example Cheddi’s Jagan’s New Global Order. As an initiative Cheddi Jagan took a number of proposals which had been made before the United Nations but which were being placed on the back-burner.
He integrated them into an international proposal to address the inequalities between the rich and the poor. His assemblage was unique but the ideas within were not.
The Tobin Tax, which he articulated as the means to finance a development fund for poor countries had been made a long time ago, and would probably have been continued to be ignored had Cheddi not advanced it as a mechanism within his New Global Human Order.
The Low Carbon Development Strategy contains a number of ideas, which may have long been advanced. But what is novel is the development of a number of ideas concerning carbon sequestration, ecological justice and sustainable development, into a development strategy for a country.
This is what makes the LCDS stick out because it is not just a plan for the forestry sector or a means to create a fund by utilising Guyana’s forest reserves. It goes beyond this.
The second observation that should be made is that we can have a number of ideas being thrown out by experts and consultants, well-meaning ideas.
These ideas, however, often cannot be pursued because their time has not yet come.
Long before the World Bank and the IMF agreed to reduce the foreign debt of countries by writing off their own loans to poor countries, Cheddi Jagan had proposed this.
In Cheddi’s time, however, this idea did not mature, because the West was too engrossed in its own debt relief initiatives and with the imposition of the neo-liberal model of development.
Thus the emphasis was on keeping the debt on the agenda to force structural change.
It was not until it became clear that multilateral debt was itself hindering market reforms of highly indebted poor countries that the IMF and World Bank opted to amend their charters to allow for debt write-offs.
No matter how original an idea is, there is a time when it makes a difference, and most often that time is not consistent with the time when the idea is first proposed.
I have no doubt that the person who put forward the proposal for a rainforest fund, had the foresight to recognise that Guyana ought to benefit from not cutting down its forests.
This column had also made a suggestion that Guyana repossess the Iwokrama forests and use it as a magnet for attracting international funding.
The idea of a fund for the rainforests, however, could not be implemented because there were not many takers at the time.
Iwokrama itself, on to this day, continues to find problems in raising the sort of funds that are necessary.
Clearly, therefore, while the rainforest fund may be an interesting proposition, it did not take off because the conditions necessary for it just were not present and are still not present.
Contrast this with the propositions being advanced under the LCDS. Under the LCDS, there is a proposal for a mechanism of carbon trading rather than the mere creation of a fund.
It must be conceded even by a Ramjattan, that the carbon trading mechanism under the LCDS creates a far superior incentive for financing than does the rainforest fund, which has not seen the light of day in any country.
There is a far greater chance that Guyana can trade carbon credits in the carbon markets. These markets exist. They do not have to be created.
And this is why the LCDS is such an interesting and timely proposition and for which President Jagdeo deserves enormous credit.
The LCDS is, however, not without its shortcomings. In fact, it can be criticised for being too highly dependent on the degree to which western governments agree to emission cuts.
It is also hinged on a major decision being taken in December of this year that would permit countries such as Guyana to be compensated through the markets for not cutting down its forests.
The fact is that the cuts agreed to this year by the European Union and the G8, as well as the recent passage in the Senate of a Climate Change Bill, may put paid to Guyana’s ambitions of cashing on the carbon markets.
But this aside we should at least be proud of the fact that there is an Initiative out there, which, regardless of what happens in the carbon markets, has elements that are good for Guyana.
Instead, therefore, of harping on whether the initiative is original or not, there should be a serious attempt by the Alliance For Change, in keeping with the tenor of Raphael Trotman’s recent letter to the media concerning the fire at the Ministry of Health, to try to find a way of salvaging this Initiative by advancing workable proposals that would reduce the Initiative’s vulnerability to what happens in Copenhagen in December.

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