BECOMING A POORER NATION

Nov 16, 2016 Editorial, Features / Columnists

As a nation, we are becoming poorer, not all of us, only some of us.

Modern adult poverty is defined as when one cannot meet one’s basic necessities, including food and non-food items that are needed for survival.

The most recent Survey of Living Conditions/Poverty Report found that an estimated 43 percent of the population in Guyana have fallen below the poverty line. And roughly two-thirds of the poor or 29 percent of the total population are classified as being extremely poor, which means they are living on less than US$1per day. The Survey also found that poverty has been steadily increasing in the country since 2012.

The majority of Guyana’s poor live in the rural areas, while extreme poverty is concentrated in the interior regions. The rural poor are self-employed in agriculture or work as agricultural labourers. Poor households tend to have more children and have attained lower levels of education than non-poor households. Poverty across ethnic groups is highest for the Amerindian population, although it is significant among the Afro-and-Indo-Guyanese and racially mixed households.

One of the main reasons for such high rate of poverty in Guyana is because its economic fortunes in recent years have taken a downward turn. Between 2005 and 2013, the economy grew by an average of 4.7 percent per year, ending a disappointing decade of alternating years of growth and contraction. However, real GDP growth decelerated to 3.8 percent in 2014 and to 3.0 percent in 2015, as the demands and prices of the country’s export commodities fell on the world market. Drought, and uncertainty surrounding the 2015 elections, also contributed to a slower growth rate.
Guyana ranks 117th out of 187 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index, and continued aid and humanitarian assistance and remittances will not reduce poverty or improve the lives of the poor.

Poverty in Guyana remains a problem. It is extremely damaging for children in all its aspects. The degree of abuse and violence many children are subjected to can only create maladjusted adults who would repeat the downward cycle into deeper poverty. The abuse need not be only physical; emotional and mental deprivation are equally damaging.

In Guyana as elsewhere, prosperity is linked mostly to education, therefore more investment is needed in early childhood education to target disadvantaged children and at the same time reduce family poverty. The poor cannot easily clothe their children, pay the transportation costs to send them to school, or allow them to participate in school events, which has in some cases caused ridicule and embarrassment and led to the children eventually abandoning education. In Guyana, only 55 percent of the population would have a secondary education, but over 65 percent of poor would not.

In terms of health, Guyana has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Latin America, with 280 deaths per 100,000 live births. Its infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world, with 34.45 deaths per 1,000 live births. Almost 1.5 percent of Guyana’s population between 15 and 45 years are living with HIV/AIDS, and deaths due to the disease have resulted in more than 1000 orphaned children, which is higher than that of most other countries in the region. These grave statistics can be attributed in part to the low density of physicians, with less than one doctor per 1,000 people.

In order to reduce poverty, the government must embark on a sound macroeconomic framework and policies as a base for sustainable and human development. It must promote rapid economic growth; create employment; refocus public expenditures to improve infrastructure and the delivery of health, education, and social services;increase opportunities for new investments and diversify its exports.Growth in the agricultural sector is particularly important for reducing poverty because of the heavy concentration of the poor working in the sector.

Reducing the subsidy to GuySuCo is essential for stretching scarce government resources in public sector expenditures.These actions will make Guyana become more competitive in order to sustain economic growth and thus in some form, help to reduce poverty.

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