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US formalises $$M development assistance for another year
Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh and USAID Guyana Mission Director Carol Horning shake hands after the signing of a new bilateral programme.
The United States government yesterday agreed to another year of development assistance to Guyana worth US$13.1M. The money will be spent in the health and economic growth sectors and to improve the functioning of government institutions and systems.
The agreement was signed by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh and Guyana Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAD) Carol Horning.
The agreement is part of the US’ 2009-2013 programme, which is altogether valued at US$75 million, Singh stated.
The new programme has a heavy focus on health. US$8.3 million has been allocated to strengthen public health systems and enhance the response of civil society and the private sector to HIV/AIDS in Guyana.
In the area of governance, US$2M was allocated for “governing justly and democratically” activities to improve the democratic processes and governance institutions and systems.
For economic growth activities, US$2.8 million has been allocated. This would go towards activities designed to increase the participation of Guyanese producers of non-traditional exports in the international marketplace, enhance private sector competitiveness for export development and address global climate change.
According to Horning, the funds are being provided to address and help build up their past notable successes over the years. Towards economic growth, she said strategic, export-focused partnerships were established with private sector firms in the agriculture sector. These firms have, in turn, established contract relationships with 30 small producers, to whom they provide technical assistance and guarantee the reliable purchase of commodities.
As a result, she said over the last six months, exports from the partner firms have seen a 50% increase in exports of pineapples, melons and butternut squash. The increase in exports, and greater consistency in shipments to Caribbean markets, enabled a decrease in air cargo costs to be negotiated with Caribbean Airlines.
Horning said the democracy and governance programme was able to stabilize the electronic court records system at the High Court to prevent a loss of data. This system houses over 35,000 records, which have been entered since its introduction in 2006.
Also, Horning said training on sexual and domestic violence protocols, as a result of the new legislation, was provided to court registry clerks, counselors and social workers. This will be extended to other justice sector personnel in the future.
She outlined that the media capacity-building activities continued, with 83 professional media workers and managers being trained on media’s role in democratic decision-making, causes of social conflict, media’s role in finding strategies for resolution, and professional print and TV journalism techniques.
USAID’ s health programme continues to address, HIV/AIDS and wider health issues, Horning stated. To this end, she said USAID has completed an assessment of the training capacity of nursing schools and revised the curricula for professional nursing, nursing assistant and midwifery programmes.
Further, she noted that the programme has also expanded cervical cancer prevention services to three new sites, making a total of 10 sites now offering these services.
“At these sites 7,299 women were screened for cervical cancer, 573 of whom were HIV-positive,” Horning stated.”These are major accomplishments that we could not have realized without the commitment and involvement of all our partners, private and public, including the different government of Guyana ministries and agencies,” she declared.
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