UNICEF, Guyana sign US$1.2M 2013 work plan

Foreign Affairs Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and UNICEF representative for Guyana and Suriname, Dr Suleiman Braimoh signed the Annual Work Plan for 2013 at the ministry last Friday.
The plan will deal directly with interventions aimed at protecting women and children, and will utilise the US$1.2 million allocated to assist in those areas. Rodrigues-Birkett said: “It might seem like a small amount of money, but I have had the opportunity to work with UNICEF and we’ve seen a small amount of money go a far way.”
The minister said that the money would be used to improve data collection methods and it would be a large focus of this year’s plan.

“I am a firm believer of looking at policy only when you have the data, because data informs policy.”
Rodrigues-Birkett further noted that in looking at the various policies, data collection would assist Guyana in knowing which policies to keep, amend and abolish. She said that, however, collection of relevant data was “a problem that many of our countries face, especially small countries in the Caribbean in terms of reporting to these international bodies”.
Rodrigues-Birkett stated that “large countries would have entire departments dedicated to reporting, very small countries have limited resources”, adding that “Guyana has actually in the last two to three years been trying to be update in terms of our reporting.”
The minister said Guyana has increased report submissions aggressively within the last three years and that the select committee appointed to look at the recommendation emanating from the universal economic review, has adopted a strategy aimed at recognising the larger programme of the work plan.
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett stated that the work plan will utilise data collection to conduct research in the area of youth and adolescent development with a focus on education.  The minister noted that for Guyana in particular, the work plan will help to address the mass hysteria that has been occurring in the interior school dorms.
She also noted that data collection is conducive with ensuring that child survival rates are improved. UNICEF and Guyana are prepared to use data to minimise preventable child deaths by ensuring safe newborn delivery, proper nutrition, and protection from developing world diseases such as HIV.
Dr Braimoh stated that the overall goal of the annual work plan was to work in two phases which he deemed upstream and downstream.  He said that the upstream portion would assess the challenges and formulate strategies to protect the rights of children and women. Downstream would be focused on the implementation of policies based on the joint agreement between Guyana and UNICEF.
The annual work plan, among its other directives, aims to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Guyana will launch a database this year as part of the plan that will contribute to making data on Guyana universally available while providing empirical evidence to assist with policy development.