To be clear, the PPP from its birth on January 1, 1950 sent a message that gender equality was one of the values they prioritized. With leaders like Janet Jagan before and Gail Teixeria today, the PPP has always been home to strong women and the home where gender equality has a place of honor.
October 25 is a milestone that we must mark-off as a date to remember in history. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on October 25, 2024, launched General Recommendation 40 (GR40) which is a recommendation for gender parity in decision-making systems in all countries. This includes parliament, government cabinets, senior management in the public and private sectors, etc. It is a roadmap towards 50:50 parity for women and men.
In its comprehensive guidance, GR40, CEDAW made it clear that “equal and inclusive representation” requires no less than 50-50 parity between women and men. This undisputable standard ensures equal access for all women and girls within any decision-making system, which the Committee underlined should include public, private sector, political, economic, and digital spaces.
Can you believe that still there are 107 countries that have never had a woman as the head-of-state? Maybe finally on November 5, 2024, America might decide to change the fact that America is one of the 107 countries. Note that almost 30 years after the Beijing Declaration urged that at least 30% of parliamentarians around the world should be women, the global statistics only now has reached 27%.
But Guyana is one of the countries that have made a concerted effort to achieve the Beijing target for parliaments. The parliament of Guyana (September 2020 – present) has approximately 40% women membership. Note that in the 1st election after independence, held in 1968, the Parliament of Guyana only had 10% women as MPs. In CARICOM today, only two countries come close to meeting the 30% Beijing target for women MPs – Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
Whereas the Beijing targets for equality was 30%, GR40 lifts the bar to 50:50. Although most countries are far from achieving the Beijing targets, these previous targets of 30% are now behind the times. In fact, the 30% targets, if we continue to accept as the standard, sends the message that inequality between women and men is justifiable.
The CEDAW GR40 comes at a time when women and children are under the most brutal assault in many parts of the world. We cannot talk about gender parity today without reminding people that reprehensible, inhumane warsby war-mongering States are indiscriminatingly murdering innocent people, including a disproportionate percentage of women and children in Gaza and now Lebanon and in several other areas of conflicts. In Gaza, more than 70% of the war-related murders and of women and children.
Among those being killed in Gaza are health workers, humanitarian volunteers and journalists. Our Commentary 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 United Nations Refugees and Works Agency (UNRWA) volunteers and workers are humanitarian heroes and must not be targets. In our assessment, the targeting of these humanitarian volunteers, the health care providers and journalists is a war crime. In terms of the UNRWA volunteers, they are merely trying to bring food to hungry desperate people. To bring death and disability to these humanitarian volunteers is reprehensible and is nothing less than criminal.
Even as the warmongers disregard gender rights, Guyana is pushing for gender equality because we believe that the time for gender parity must be now.The Global Gender Gap Index was first introduced by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in 2006 to benchmark progress towards gender parity across four dimensions: economic opportunities, education, health and political leadership. The 2024 Report ranked 146 countries which had the relevant statistics to enable ranking. Guyana was one of the 146 countries that met eligibility standards for being included. Guyana’s rank in 2024 was 35th, with a score of 76.5%. In 2021, Guyana ranked 53rd, with a score of 72.8%. Guyana continues to make improvement on the Gender Gap Index (GGI).
The average (mean) score for the 146 countries was 68.5%, showing that Guyana was 8 points above the global average. Guyana is also ahead of the average score for Latin America and the Caribbean which was 74.2% in 2024, with Guyana 2.3% above this average. Guyana’s average score for economic participation and opportunity for women is 72.8%, with a rank of #47. But with President Irfaan Ali’s mission of engaging women and youth in agriculture, future Gender Gap Index scores for economic participation and opportunity should change dramatically, leading to over Gender Gap Index score also improving.
Guyana’s high scores and ranking on the GGI is not accidental or a coincident. One of the hallmarks of the PPP is its prioritization of gender equality. It has a long and storied history when it comes to women rights and gender equality. From the start in 1950, through leadership from Janet Jagan, the PPP has aggressively pursued women rights and gender equality. But clearly, one of the areas that Guyana must improved is in the area of economic participation and opportunity for women.
In regard of GGGI, Guyana is making rapid advancements toward the 2030 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 today’s Democracy Guyana’sCommentary focuses on food and food insecurity. In the 2024 Global Hunger Index, Guyana ranks #47 in the world. With a score of 9.1, Guyana’s 2024 hunger index means the country is considered to have a very low rate of hunger. The score in 2016 was 10.7. The lower the number the better is the rating. Less than 10 is equal to low levels of hunger; Moderate level of hunger is 10-19.9 and high level of hunger is above 20. Venezuela Hunger Index is 15.1; Suriname 10.9 and Trinidad and Tobago 10.8. The global average for hunger was 18.3 in 2023, far higher than Guyana.
Guyana is making considerable strides in achieving food security, with overall under-nutrition 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 $US80M annually from reduced food imports.
At the global level, the world is failing badly in the SDG goal of ending hunger. Following rapid progress after 1990, the last decade has seen significant losses in some of the previous gains. With 733 M people now going hungry on a daily basis around the world, with 2.8B people finding a healthy diet unaffordable, the FAO brought leaders from around the world at the World Food Forum to commit to further action to stop the decline and to make progress towards the SDG goals pertaining to poverty, hunger and women and youth empowerment in agriculture.
Guyana’s President, HE Dr. Irfaan Ali, was given the honor 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 committed that Guyana is targeting a minimum of 30% of agrobusinesses to be owned by women and 50% to be owned by women and youth. While many countries are promoting women and youth in agriculture and while the UN SDGs have set this ambitious target for women and youth, few countries have embarked so boldly on meeting this commitment.
About 80 percent of the world’s food is produced by small-scale farming. Women make up on average 43 percent of this agricultural labor in developing countries. They 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. Yetthey 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 (SDG 5.1.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 agro-business would be under the control of women. He also committed that 50% of agro-businesses would be owned by women and youth by 2030. Such visionary and bold moves by the Irfaan Ali-led PPP government is setting a model for the rest of the world.
CEDAW GR40 comes at a time when globally countries are preparing for the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on Gender Rights. Guyana has made impressive gains since Beijing 1995. It is one of few countries in the LAC with a Women and Gender Equality Commission. Hopefully, our country will emerge as a champion for GR40.