No guarantee that economic growth will deliver development

May 07, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The World Bank in a 2020 report repeatedly bemoans the fact that years of economic growth in Guyana have had little impact on poverty reduction, social inclusion and quality of life. As such, despite GDP rates hovering around three to four percent over the years, measures of income, maternal mortality, nutrition, health care, job creation and other such indicators have disappointed. For instance, poverty rates in Guyana in 2017 ranged from 57percent in the interior to 35 percent in urban centres. And many of our children continue to be malnourished to the extent that their mental and physical growth is stunted. I recently advocated that Guyanese must now voice outrage over these and other unacceptable failings in the governing of our country (see https://kaieteurnewsonline.com/2021/05/02/are-our-politicians-out-of-their-depth-on-how-to-use-oil-revenues-to-transform-the-society/).
With oil wealth now in hand and much more to come, we can see why the World Bank would title its 2020 report as “A Pivotal Moment for Guyana: Realising the Opportunities.” And the pivotal question is how to convert oil-driven, high-flying growth in GDP into development in which all citizens enjoy a high quality of life. Or, in less rousing language, how to ensure resource-rich Guyana does not forever stagnate as a development-poor country.
There is much agreement on the building blocks that should shape our development strategy. As such, we often hear about the need for a good business climate, infrastructure, human capital enhancement (through health and education provision), an efficient public service, sober fiscal policy and so on. The World Bank report gives these and other components due attention.
But to translate growth into development, these will not be enough. What will make the difference are factors such as the visionary zeal, competence, creativity and people-centredness of the government of the day, and the pressures and demands of the people on it.
Visionary zeal speaks to how fast, how far and how big the government sees development goals (Elimination of child poverty by 2025? Reduction of maternal mortality, one of the highest in the region, to one of the world’s lowest in five years? Full employment?). Competence includes the ingraining of an outcome-oriented culture, one that recognises, for instance, that much deficiency exists in our education system where 12 years of schooling is equivalent to 6.7 years of schooling in world-class education systems as measured by what a child learns.
Creativity requires us to produce different or novel ideas where what we have tried for decades is clearly not delivering for the people. People-centredness should speak for itself; our political leaders after all claim they seek office to serve us. We should measure this factor by how responsive the government of the day is towards our needs, rights and aspirations. Under this heading, I would place the philosophy and generosity of social welfare and equality programmes (do we, for instance, see targeted cash transfers as an urgent and moral imperative?).
Because much can thwart growth from delivering human and other development, it is very possible that by mid-decade, Guyana could find itself super-rich (resource curse not considering) but with many citizens not seeing the benefits for themselves, their families and their communities.

Yours faithfully,
Sherwood Lowe

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