From Where I Stand: Guyana has outgrown the “growth” argument

Dec 28, 2025 Features / Columnists, News

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By Janelle A. N Persaud

(Kaieteur News) – I had already begun working on a column about inequality; prompted by the release of the latest World Inequality Report, when the President addressed the nation on his government’s “policy agenda for economic and social transformation”.  So, I listened with the intent to understand whether Guyana’s remarkable growth story is now being matched by a serious strategy for socioeconomic development. I can’t sugar coat this; it was a hard listen. I settled for the transcript instead.

The global evidence is clear. Across regions, rapid growth does not automatically reduce inequality. In fact, growth can widen the gap between those already positioned to benefit and those who are not, if deliberate interventions are not made. Guyana, despite its unique scale and speed of expansion, is not immune to this pattern. And so, our challenge is whether this unprecedented growth is being intentionally converted into dignity; through distribution, capacity, and inclusion particularly for those the market alone will never reach.

This is not intended to be a dismissal of the measures currently being rolled out or the ones the president announced. Many of them are useful and, I’m sure for some households, they are genuinely life-improving. My concern is whether these plans are capable of reducing inequality, or merely softens its sharpest edges. I vote the latter.

First, the President’s address reflected an awareness of the pressures Guyanese are facing: wages, cost of living, opportunity, security. The language echoed what many people say every day, especially online. The address was framed as a national socio-economic plan. However, plans are more than statements of intent. They set out pathways, trade-offs, timelines, and measures by which progress can be assessed. Unless, these are published elsewhere, what we heard was a compelling articulation of direction, but far less clarity on how that direction will be operationalised.

On capacity, free education and expanded access are important achievements, and they deserve to be acknowledged, commended even. The GOAL scholarship programme has opened doors for many who would never otherwise have accessed tertiary education. Free tuition at the University of Guyana, alongside expanded technical and vocational training, signals an understanding that human capital matters. These are not small things.

But access without quality, labour-market alignment, and decent wages does not guarantee mobility. Education cannot be asked to carry the burden of inequality alone. A university degree that leads to low-wage, insecure work in a high-inflation economy does little to alter life chances, no matter how proudly or passionately it is framed.

More fundamentally, we have to confront who is actually able to reach these opportunities in the first place. Published enrolment or indeed literacy rates mean very little to me when I have engaged far too many children across communities, who sadly still cannot read at grade level. Literacy remains a quiet crisis in this country. And without early intervention, no amount of free university education can compensate for a weak foundation.

This is where reform becomes urgent. Our education system continues to produce skills for an economy we should have no business holding on to, structured around inherited colonial logics that were never designed to nurture creativity, adaptability, or independent thinking. We renovate the system, but we rarely reimagine it. We add limited technology, but we do not fundamentally change how children are taught, what they are taught, or why.

If we are serious about capacity-building, then the work must begin earlier and run deeper: literacy, teacher training, curriculum reform, and a clearer connection between education, industry, and wages. Otherwise, education becomes another promise that sounds transformative in speeches but leaves inequality intact in practice.

The same applies to financial literacy and access to credit. Knowledge and opportunity matter, but they cannot substitute for income security, buffers, and time. You cannot budget your way out of structural precarity. For those earning barely enough to survive, the tools of accumulation remain theoretical, no matter how well explained.

Wage growth illustrates this tension most sharply. Adjustments to income thresholds may offer marginal relief, but when wages are already compressed and inflation continues to erode purchasing power, such changes are symbolic than they ever will be transformative. An extra few thousand dollars a month cannot meaningfully shift lives where most income is already consumed by basic survival. This is especially true for low-wage public and private-sector workers, whose earnings often fall far below what is required for a dignified life.

I do not question the intention behind these commitments. But as a citizen, I am left without a clear sense of the plan itself: how will it be measured? And how will it change the everyday reality of those earning the least in this economy?

Aspirations are all well and good. Aspire away! Governing however, requires aspirations AND structure.

If inequality is to be reduced, the state cannot rely on growth and universality alone. It must intervene intentionally; differentiating by need and correcting structural disadvantages. Markets reward those already positioned to participate.

A friend asked recently whether  “the government must do everything”. The answer is no. A government alone does not make a society. Families, churches, businesses, community organisations, and individuals all have roles to play. But when it comes to inequality, there are corrections only the state can make.

The role of the state is to ensure that participation itself becomes possible in the first place.

Civil society can support, innovate, and respond. NGOs can fill gaps. Churches can provide care and grounding. Businesses can create opportunity. But without a clear, evidence-based framework that is grounded in needs assessments, data, and long-term coordination, from the state, these efforts remain fragmented. They work in silos, often duplicating or missing the people who need them most.

Guyana has proven that it can grow.

From where I stand, the real test now is whether we are willing to govern that growth with intention or continue mistaking momentum for transformation.

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• economic and social transformation, inequality, Janelle Persaud, policy agenda, World Inequality Report

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