Guyana is making rapid advancements toward the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Two important empowerment and social justice SDGs are highlighted today, for which Guyana is not going to fail: Goal #2, which deals with hunger, and Goal #5, which addresses gender empowerment.
Last week, HE President Irfaan Ali addressed these matters in an intervention at the World Food Forum, held in Rome, Italy. It is for this reason that this week’s Ruminations focuses on food and food insecurity.
Guyana is making considerable strides in achieving food security, with child malnutrition falling below 2.5%, far below the regional and global averages. Food production and food export have increased significantly, and Guyana is expecting to save more than US$80M annually from reduced food imports. But even as Guyana is accumulating impressive achievements in food security and in promoting the rights of women and children, Ruminations this week is compelled to call for global action to protect humanitarian workers who are on the frontline trying to bring food to those caught in the middle of several conflicts around the world, particularly those in Gaza.
The UNWR volunteers and workers are humanitarian heroes, and must not be targeted. In Ruminations’ assessment, the targeting of these humanitarian volunteers is a war crime. They are merely trying to bring food to people who are hungry and desperate. To bring death and disability to these humanitarian volunteers is reprehensible, and is nothing less than criminal.
At the global level, the world is failing badly in the SDG of ending hunger. With rapid progress having been made after 1990, the last decade has seen significant losses in some of the previous gains. With 733 million people now going hungry daily around the world, and with 2.8B people finding a healthy diet unaffordable, the FAO brought leaders from around the world to the World Food Forum, to have them commit to further action to stop the decline, and to make progress towards the SDG goals about poverty, hunger, and women and youth empowerment in agriculture.
Guyana’s President, Dr Irfaan Ali, was given the honour of addressing, through a video message, the closing ceremony of the World Food Forum, which was held last week in Rome. In his message, President Ali declared that Guyana is targeting a minimum of 30% of agribusinesses to be owned by women, and 50% to be owned by women and youths.
While many countries are promoting women and youths in agriculture, and while the UN SDGs have set this ambitious target for women and youths, few countries have embarked so boldly on meeting this commitment.
About 80 per cent of the world’s food is produced by small-scale farming. Women make up, on average, 43 per cent of this agricultural labour in developing countries, and are the majority in some countries. In South Asia, more than two-thirds of employed women work in agriculture. In eastern Africa, over half of farmers are women. Yet, women face significant discrimination when it comes to land and livestock ownership; equal pay; participation in decision-making entities, and access to credit and financial services. For example, only between 10% and 20% of agricultural land owners around the world are women. For this reason, one of the SDG targets, (SDG5.1.a), is specifically related to land ownership and rights: “Secure and equal ownership rights for women over agricultural land”.
President Ali announced to the world, as he helped to close off the World Food Forum last week, that Guyana is ensuring that, by 2030, 30% of agribusinesses would be under the control of women. He also committed that 50% of agribusinesses would be owned by women and youths by 2030. Such visionary and bold moves by the Irfaan Ali-led PPP government are setting a model for the rest of the world.
Guyana is making rapid progress in producing more food. One area that Guyana has been lacking is the production of hatching eggs. Guyana, in 2010, imported all of its hatching eggs. In 2013, Guyana started to develop a small capacity for the production of hatching eggs. This totally disappeared by 2020. In 2023, Guyana produced 27,000 hatching eggs, and up to June 2024, Guyana has produced 94,000 hatching eggs. It is the first time in Guyana’s history that there is a meaningful hatching eggs’ capacity. This is another example of how the cost of production for poultry products is being made more affordable.
A second area in which Guyana has been lacking, and has had to resort to importation, is in the area of dairy products, including milk. However, the country is making significant strides in reducing importation of dairy products. Last week, for instance, DDL signed an agreement with a firm in Barbados to market bottled milk in that country.
Guyana has made dramatic improvement in the production of dairy products. Indeed, DDL is investing $4B in establishing a modern milk plant to supply locally-produced milk in Guyana and for export to CARICOM.
A third area in which Guyana needs to develop capacity is in the production of raw materials to manufacture stockfeed. Raw materials in this regard include corn and soya products valued at more than US$50M; but, already, Guyana has made a significant dent in the amounts of these raw materials being imported. By 2026, Guyana would be self-sufficient in corn and soya, saving more than US$50M in foreign currency for imports. Guyana is now aiming to be an exporter of soya by 2028, helping CARICOM to increase its near-shoring of imports.
While the world is awed by the economic (GDP) growth experienced by Guyana in the last four years, little attention has been paid to the various initiatives that have diversified the economy. This diversification is what has caused Guyana to also be the leading country for GDP growth, even if the oil factor is removed. It is simply a phenomenal transformation.