IDB slowness adversely affecting the income of Amerindian people

Oct 09, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) project, Guyana’s Redd+ Readiness activates has not been managed satisfactorily by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) leading to the suffering of the Amerindian Peoples in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The highly anticipated FCPF project is now in the close off year without any tangible activity being completed, this project has been badly managed by the IDB local office and the IDB in general.
This was a 3 year project signed in 2014 by the former administration and was slated for completion in February 2017. Much to the disappointment of Guyanese and in particular indigenous people not a single activity has been completed and the project is now in its completion year. Less than 5% of the project budget of US $3.8M has been expended. This is totally unacceptable and reeks of poor implementation by the IDB and the executing agency. There may be blamed being cast around as who is responsible for the failure of this project but the facts are clear if after three years the fund can disbursed more than 5% of the budget we know whose door the failure lies.
Guyana was able to qualify for FCPF project due to its good track record on climate change and REDD+ activities that was ongoing at the time. It was seen as an important next step in Guyana’s progression on the global climate change and REDD+ and green agenda. It was also a stepping stone to access other climate change and green funds like the Green Climate Funds, Forest Investment Fund, Climate Investment Funds, etc.
As alluded earlier, the agreement was signed in 2014 by then Minister of Finance. In 2015 under the new administration of the Ministry of Natural Resources took charge of the project and established a separate FCPF secretariat to implement the project; all with the approval of the IDB. The saga started with the IDB in 2015, the IDB brought in (hired) someone with little or no experience in climate change and REDD+ to oversee the project (Mr. Luis Miguel Aparicio from Peru) please check his CV online for independent confirmation.
He was unable to bring any value to the project. He was unable to work with local stakeholders as he was found to be very incompetent and most of all displayed a high level of arrogance to local stakeholders. The said person also had an altercation with a current Member of Parliament. I had personal interaction with the this IDB coordinator in the hope of moving the activities of the project forward but all was futile due to his lack of understanding of the basics of the project and the dynamics of working with local stakeholders including indigenous people.
All this was happening under the watchful eyes of the IDB office here and aboard and nothing was done to halt the humiliation and assault that was being perpetuated on Guyanese stakeholders. As a result the project lost momentum and basically nothing got implemented rather endless time and effort was spent arguing with the IDB on the best approach for the project.
Sometime in 2016, after the project was quickly becoming a failure the person was whisked away to IDB’s Headquarters. However this did not help, as from then to now, the project is still lagging behind; much to the disappointment of stakeholders in particular the indigenous people. Some US $300,000.00 was earmarked to be provided to the indigenous organisations and NTC in benefits.
This would have brought tremendous relief and benefits to the Amerindian people of Guyana. On the occasion of the opening of the NTC 2016 Conference, the Chairman of NTC, Mr. Fredricks made a passionate plea for HE President Granger to intervene and investigate the progress or lack of progress on the implantation of this project. One year after and another NTC conference (2017) came and gone another Amerindian Heritage month came and gone and the project is exactly the same stage as it was in 2016 when the NTC Chairman asked HE to intervene. So it is clear that the IDB has grossly mismanaged this project and cannot cast blame otherwise.
I call on the government to request IDB to transfer the entire project budget to the treasury so that the government gets the funds that has duly been allocated by the donor. The government can then administer the project and give the portion of budget earmarked for the Amerindian people. If this fails, it’s time IDB pack up and let another institution take over the project. We have UNDP, CI, WWF, FAO etc. willing to come on board. Mind you, the IDB is just the intermediary for the funds and not the donour. Countries like Norway etc. are the donours through the World Bank window and IDB was given the task as fund manager which they have badly failed.
The failure of the FCPF will hinder Guyana’s chances of accessing hundreds of millions of US$ from other climate related fund window like the Carbon Investment Fund, Green climate Fund, etc. Finally, I repeat the call of our Toshao for HE to investigate this project and the IDB failure to deliver funds to the country and the difficulties and disappointment it has brought to the Amerindian people.
Peter Persaud

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