POVERTY IN GUYANA
In November last year, 11-month-old girl Melveena Angel Blair died in a fire at her home in Sophia while her brother suffered burn injuries. Along with another child, they were home alone.The elder brother had jumped through a window to call his mother who immediately arrived on the scene. Both parents had been at work making dog food for a living. Today, one year later, the family is in even more dire circumstances and the officials who attended and sympathized are not in evidence. The children’s father, a security guard, is now in prison on a marijuana conviction. The mother is unemployed and lives in one room with the children at her ex-boyfriend’s grandmother. Apart from some help from the grandmother who works at a dumpsite, some assistance from social services is being provided but it is clearly insufficient. The State officials who visited at the time of the tragedy have not been seen since. This story appeared in the Stabroek News on November 25.
In East Ruimveldt, 72-year-old Joseph Anthony and his daughter, Chevy, 31, swelter in a tiny room with a leaking roof and dirt floor in an overcrowded warren of cramped shacks. They sleep on mouldy matresses and sell groceries during the day, yet barely have enough to make ends meet. Joseph says that offshore drilling has brought only high prices. When it all started, they made a lot of promises, but people like us living in squats receive nothing, Joseph said. His neighbour, IsolEtaagard, also 72, agrees, “Look around,” she says, gesturing to the dope-smoking gang members lingering on the opposite corner, “we are no better off here.” These stories come from further afield, from the Telegraph of London on November 24, written by Tom Party with photographs by Simon Townsley. It is headlined: “Guyana’s oil bonanza: Will the vast wealth it is generating ever trickle down?”
It is not often that these stories get highlighted, but they are known to exist plentifully in deprived neighbourhoods in Georgetown and in numerous pockets in the countryside and the hinterland. The Government knows of the existence of poverty. The President and Government are aware of that poverty is extensive and the President’s recent visit to Tiger Bay, like President Janet Jagan before him, is an acknowledgment of this fact. But nothing was said or indicated by the President to suggest that the issues of accessible jobs and decent housing will be resolved any time soon.
The extent of poverty and its distribution in Guyana, either among ethnic groups, age groups, children, gender, or geographical distribution, are unknown. The World Bank cited 48 percent in 2019. The Inter-American Development Banksuggested 58 percent in 2025 but with a higher poverty line of US$6.85 a day. Extreme poverty stood at 32 percent. The speculation today is that poverty is much reduced because of government’s social policies across the spectrum due to substantially higher spending facilitated by the oil economy. It is not known if the Guyana Government has its own figures. If it does, it does not publish them. But it surely has an idea of the extent of poverty and whether or not it is being reduced. The comments of Joseph Anthony – “Look around, we are no better off here” – and Isol Etaagard – “I think most of the profit from the oil is going to America” – suggest that expectations are low.
There is no doubt that the Government has done much to assist individuals and families to rise above poverty or difficult conditions. The distribution of house lots, the construction of homes, cash grants for children, improvements in health and education, the creation of employment opportunities, free education and many others, must have had an impact. But while poverty can be alleviated and be eventually eliminated, although it’s a long and difficult process, extreme poverty is more intractable and requires dediated resources. Joseph Anthony and Isol Etaagard would be entitled to senior citizen pensions but $41,000 per month. Though increased in recent years, it is still insufficient. The senior citizens need not only increased pensions but housing and other social services that can only be assessed and provided by qualified social workers.
It is hardly likely that the Government can find sufficient material and human resources to eliminate general and extreme poverty in the immediate future having regard to its extent and the other demands on its resources. General poverty can be removed over time with training, employment and housing. But extreme poverty is not easily susceptible to similar remedies. Much, though not all of it, is focused on the disabled, addicted, sick, aged and infirm. This group needs the provision of resources on a permanent basis and the permanent assistance of social workers. There is no evidence that there is a consistent, targeted, approach for the elimination of extreme poverty. A department within the Ministry exists for child care, but none exists for extreme poverty.
Government needs to focus specifically on the elimination of poverty in a structured way so that, apart from general resources, such as for senior citizens pensions, specific resources are targeted to the elimination of extreme poverty. This will also enable its reduction to be measured. An agency in the nature of SIMAP may be considered.
