GEORGETOWN: The Inter-American Development Bank signed a US$15M security loan with Guyana, on the heels of the announcement of another loan worth US$17.1M for the environment sector. Announcement of the latter loan has drawn protest from the Working People’s Alliance and the Guyana Human Rights Association as Parliament is prorogued, among other issues.
A Ministry of Finance statement on the loans follows:
The Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) once again signaled its confidence, and commitment to support development initiatives, in Guyana by concluding and signing with the Government of Guyana two major agreements in the citizen security and environmental management sectors.
The agreements, valued at a total of US$32.16M, were signed by the Bank’s President Mr. Luis Alberto Moreno and Guyana’s Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh when the two met last Thursday in Freeport, Bahamas.
“The decision by the IDB to provide these loans is further testimony of the Bank’s confidence in this Government’s commitment to responsible management and, in particular, to implementing meaningful reform in the two sectors concerned,” the Minister stated.
One of the two agreements signed provides for a sum of US$15M to finance the Citizen Security Strengthening Project which will fund a number of initiatives aimed at contributing to a reduction in crime and violence such as homicides, burglaries and robberies, and domestic violence, in Guyana.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
(i) Improve behaviours for non-violent conflict resolution in target communities;
(ii) Increase the Guyana Police Force (GPF) effectiveness in crime prevention and crime investigation nationally;
(iii) Improve Guyana Prison Service (GPS) effectiveness in reducing offender recidivism at the national level.
“The programme will go a long way in helping to make our neighborhoods and communities safer and our security agencies more effective,” the Finance Minister noted.
Under the Environment Sector Strengthening Project, some US$17.16M will be provided in support of policy reforms in the sector. The programme aims to support Guyana in the implementation of its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) with emphasis on climate change initiatives and sustainable natural resources management.
The objective of this operation, which is the second in a programmatic series, is to continue the process of strengthening the governance and policy framework that supports the implementation of the LCDS. The loan will further enhance the regulatory, institutional and monitoring structures to of the programme to support the implementation of that strategy.
The Bank approved the loan given Guyana’s full achievement of all policy reforms that were agreed to in 2013 and the Bank’s satisfaction with Government’s adoption of sound macroeconomic policies.
“The reforms contemplated by the programme make for even more effective discharge of Guyana’s responsibilities in this area, which is of critical importance given Guyana’s established leadership in the area of climate change and sustainable management of natural resources,” Minister Singh said.
