Guyana and UN meet to discuss SDGs

There is a renewed effort to ensure Guyana achieves all of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

A meeting between the Senior Minister responsible for Finance Dr Ashni Singh, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance Gail Teixeira and members of the United Nations local office led by resident coordinator Mikiko Tanaka was aimed at charting this course, as they began discussions on revisiting how the indicators can be met.

UN Resident Coordinator Tanaka acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the achievement of these goals globally, “if you look at the SDGs, all the progress has been impacted negatively,” she pointed out,

“The economic impact is serious, many people have lost jobs, income, health of course is a serious challenge,’ she added.

On Thursday, the UN office shared with the government its country analysis as the Resident Coordinator explained that the body is trying to “diagnose” at what stage the country is at achieving the various SDGs.

Senior Minister Dr Singh pointed out that the country wants to ensure that it meets the needs of all the people.

“Our aim of course is to improve the wellbeing of our people in the shortest possible time through both establishing a conducive and positive broad policy framework but also through a number of specific interventions,” Dr Singh said.

The Minister pointed out that the country’s economy is  “going through a period of dramatic changes,” as he said the government is cognisant of the implications of these changes and continue to strategise to address them.

Guyana, like many UN member states adopted the SDGs in 2015.