Two months later… Guyana still being ignored as World Bank Gives aid to 100 countries

May 20, 2020 News

The World Bank has reached a milestone in its quest to ensure countries respond effectively to COVID-19. Its emergency operations to fight COVID-19 have reached 100 developing countries. But Guyana is excluded.
It has been more than two months since Guyana went to the Bank with open arms, asking for US$5M to aid its COVID-19 response. There has been no response.
Finance Minister Winston Jordan had, in response, claimed that even the countries that got earmarked so far would have to wait months to get their aid, but the Bank said that its assistance has already reached these countries.
Concerns continue to mount that the US-based Bank, which has been instrumental to the development of Guyana’s petroleum sector, may now be restricting aid from Guyana due to its protracted election process.
The electoral process has dragged on for two and a half months, and Guyana has barred the Carter Center from coming back to observe the recount. The restriction has been noted by American, British, Canadian and European Ambassadors to Guyana. They have all floated the likelihood of sanctions for any electoral fraud.
Guyana holds its hand out for aid, while the World Bank continually scales up its response to help other countries.
“The scale and speed of the Bank Group’s response is critical in helping countries mitigate the adverse impacts of this crisis and prioritize the human capital investments that can accelerate recovery,” the Bank said
In a statement yesterday, the Bank said that the aid it started rolling out since March, now reaches 70 percent of the world’s population, especially the poor and vulnerable.
The aid is meant to shore up countries’ health response and to keep the global private sector buoyant.
“This assistance, the largest and fastest crisis response in the Bank Group’s history, marks a milestone in implementing the Bank Group’s pledge to make available $160 billion in grants and financial support over a 15-month period to help developing countries respond to the health, social and economic impacts of COVID-19 and the economic shutdown in advanced countries,” the Bank said.
World Bank Group President, David Malpass, is quoted as saying that the pandemic could push 60 million people into extreme poverty, and that efforts to tackle the health emergency by the bank and its partners must provide cash and other expandable support to protect the poor and strengthen economic resilience.

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