GUYANA VNR 2023

6. CONSULTATIONS AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENTS

National consultations around the national development strategy document have historically been far reaching in nature involving multistakeholder groups and iterative feedback. The most recent engagements for LCDS 2030 were no different, however, there was a new feature, e-consultation which allowed persons to review the draft documents on the on the official LCDS website and provide their feedback via the comments portal of the website or using the official LCDS 2030 email.

The seven months consultation period which commenced in October 2021, also facilitated virtual stakeholder engagements were also held in light of COVID-19. Consultation meetings with civil society, private sector and other organisations were held between January and March of 2022. National level consultations were completed with 31 Ministries and Agencies, 12 private sector bodies and 33 civil society individuals and organisations. There were also 16 community-based sessions, attended by an average of 100 persons in each session. Emailed feedback was received from 16 organisations, while 13 institutions and individuals provided feedback via the LCDS 2030 website. The website still allows for feedback on be received on the documents.

strategy that then guides programme development, annual targets and performance indicators. Some policy documents target active stakeholder groups, for example, the external debt policy that covered MoF, BoG, and multilateral financing partners.

More importantly, communicating national development goals and urgent development priorities to Guyanese has seen the President taking cabinet to the people and sectoral Ministers of government being mandated to do expanded outreach since 2020.

This format of engaging the people is expected to continue ensuring that policymakers are accessible to the public. Further, Guyana’s governance framework also features extensive consultations on issues of national interest such as electoral reform, human rights, and constitutional reform.

In keeping with the Government’s policy to promote social inclusion and equality within the Guyanese society, stakeholder consultations were held to review Guyana’s progress towards the achievement of the SDGs for the period 2019 – 2023. One consultation was held in the capital city of Georgetown at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (Coastal Consultation) on May 2nd, 2023 as seen in Figure 6 below, and the other in the country’s hinterland in the village of St. Ignatius (Hinterland Consultation) on May 20th, 2023, where most of its indigenous population reside. These consultations also fulfilled the UN Economic and Social Council mandate of Leaving No One Behind as prescribed in the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

Further, the national budget process benefits from broad and inclusive stakeholder consultation. Central sectoral ministries engage with collaborating entities, private sector and civil society in crafting their budget proposals and Regional Democratic Councils.

The development of sectoral strategies also utilises a multi-stakeholder engagement process to inform the final content of the

GUYANA | VOLUNTARY NATIONAL REVIEW 2023

The Government of Guyana has been implementing strategies and policies aimed at fostering and supporting the development of all Guyanese through the guiding principle of inclusion. It is this very principle which has made way for consultations throughout Guyana, where citizens can voice their opinions and make recommendations on national issues.

Figure 6: Coastal VNR Consultation, May 2nd, 2023 CONSULTATIONS AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENTS

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GUYANA | VOLUNTARY NATIONAL REVIEW 2023

In the last VNR, consultations were mainly held with government ministries and agencies, Regional Health Officers and civil society organisation and in this second VNR, consultations have been held with approximately 230 persons representing over 60 Rights Commissions, Village Councils, private sector, civil society, NGOs, and government ministries and agencies. Coastal consultations for Guyana’s Second VNR were expanded to include a broad, all day civil society dialogue including approximately 100 representatives from youth, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities. The consultations took the form of Government Ministers and Senior Public Servants reporting to the plenary on Guyana’s obligations and commitment to the United Nations is relation to the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development and the five (5) thematic SDGs for HLPF 2023.

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Figure 6: Coastal VNR Consultation, May 2nd, 2023 Adequate time was allowed for questions and answers, feedback, suggestions, and discussions, see example below. Even though the session went beyond the scheduled end, many remained actively engaged.

Further over 130 village representatives were consulted in hinterland consultation that saw three (3) Ministers and about 10 technical teams fly into St. Ignatius, Region 9 – 553.3 km from Georgetown – to meet with village leaders and community members as seen in Figure 8.

CONSULTATIONS AND STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENTS

These villagers travelled from remote villages and were provided with river and land transportation, accommodation and meals to ensure that they were able to attend the consultation and confer on the Goals in focus as seen below.

In addition, there was a recognition of need to make the language around the targets and indicators of the SDGs more accessible in shorter info bytes. As such, the recordings of this second VNR multistakeholder consultation sessions have already served to inform future communication strategies for the SDGs. Goal specific and indicator specific roundtables, info bytes for social media and mini goal specific VNRs are planned for the months ahead. Work has already begun to create these for dissemination.

Importantly, the questions, concerns and comments raised by participants at the consultations held demonstrated that the Goals in focus for 2023 continue to reflect ongoing needs by communities as well as national priorities. The awareness and feedback to inform policy and programme formulation are together considered good practice and key ingredients for sustainable development and achieving Agenda 2030 and beyond.