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Guyana makes strides towards achieving MDGs – Finance Minister
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh, has said that despite hiccups, Guyana will achieve its Millennium Development Goals.
Dr. Singh has said that Guyana is on track and that the country is making significant strides.
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ashni Singh
In 2000, Guyana and 188 other countries adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration which captured the agreement on eight goals on international development. These goals are now known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
These goals are to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality and empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development.
Guyana has already achieved the first two goals (eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and universal primary education) according to the third MDG progress report. It is also doing well as it relates to the other six goals.
The third report, being the most recent, has said that as it relates to the third goal, Guyana has made very good progress towards promoting gender equality and empowering women as the country met the target of eliminating gender disparity in primary and second education and strives towards parity at the tertiary level.
Whilst employment of women is still targeted for improvement, female political representation within Parliament has increased substantially. The report said that female representation has increased from twelve members (18.5 percent) in 1992 to twenty members in 2009 (30.7 percent).
The Government and Ministry of Health are working towards improving health care, especially for children at around the time of birth and improving the nutritional intake of both mothers and children.
Though the report explained that Guyana has made some headway in maternal health, Dr. Singh said that there is still need for improvement in the quality of health care offered by the maternal health care team, including nurses and obstetricians.
Guyana is among 10 of the nations that have achieved universal access to treatment of HIV/AIDS, its high dependence on foreign aid still remains a key priority and measures are currently being looked at to combat this.
As it relates to Goal 7, Government has already taken action to address a key priority; the provision of and access to safe water in the hinterland and other remote areas.
Under Goal 8, the report explains that Guyana has moved from being a heavily indebted country to one that has achieved debt sustainability.
It has been noted that the lack of adequate and predictable financing has been and still is an important constraint in meeting the MDGs.
The Minister has reiterated that the country is on track and the Government is sure that the country will achieve all the goals by its deadline. He is pleased to note that Guyana is progressing substantially, based on the third report.
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