Goal 8 : A Global Partnership for Development
Without key partnerships between rich and poor countries, the previous seven goals may not be achievable. Great opportunities for growth and development exist in today’s fast-changing global economy. But many poor countries have been left behind, lacking access to new technologies as well as the resources to participate in the globalisation process.
Guyana’s Poverty Reduction Strategy has become the framework for donor support and associated development agenda. Improved coordination has helped reduce duplication of donor projects and assisted in targeting resources more efficiently. Although net official development assistance (ODA) still falls below the targeted level, Guyana has benefited substantially from debt relief at the bilateral, commercial and multilateral levels, thereby releasing critical resources for its development programme.
The main bilateral and multilateral donors are providing more of their resources as budgetary support to Guyana, while International Development Assistance is delivered both in the form of grants and budget support. Such assistance has given Guyana the flexibility to plan and target resources at high priority sectors in its fight against poverty.
Guyana’s main foreign exchange earner, sugar, has been enjoying quota and duty-free access to the European and US markets. However, recent agricultural reforms within the European Union will reduce preferential prices by 36 percent during the period 2006-2008 with serious implications for Guyana’s external balances and poverty reduction programme.
Guyana became the fourth country in the world to benefit from debt relief under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative (HIPC) in 1997 and subsequently qualified for the enhanced HIPC in November 2000. This reduced Guyana’s outstanding debt, in Net Present Value (NPV) terms, by 54 percent. Furthermore, due to the G-8 Initiative, Guyana received debt relief amounting to US$202 million in NPV terms in 2006. Other bilateral debt relief and debt buy-backs have assisted in reducing Guyana’s external debt from 557 percent of GDP in 1992 to about 100 percent of GDP in 2006. Furthermore, in early 2007 the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) announced it is providing a US$356.5M debt relief for Guyana, effectively removing the country from its ‘highly indebted’ status. As a result, debt servicing has declined substantially, giving Guyana the opportunity to divert increasingly more of its resource towards its poverty reduction agenda. The Government is implementing reforms with the Debt Relief International, the IDA and European Union to better manage its debts and maintain debt sustainability
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