Guyana

Guyana is an upper middle-income country in South America endowed with natural resources, fertile agricultural land and extensive forests covering. With agriculture and mining as key non-oil economic sectors, taking measures to combat environmental degradation and support sustainable development have become national priorities.

The PAGE partnership with Guyana began in 2017, under the prior government coalition, linking to its Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 —a long-term economic and socio-cultural vision that aligned with the SDGs and Guyana’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC). In this phase, PAGE has supported policy development, among other initiatives, through the Guyana Green Economy Modelling Study and by building individual and institutional capacities.

After a change in leadership in August 2020, the new government set the priorities for the next five years in line with its Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) – initially launched in 2013 and updated in 2021 – with an emphasis on COVID-19 response and recovery, job creation, renewable energy, climate mitigation and adaptation and SDGs.

Planned PAGE activities are still aligned with these new policy priorities, with some delays over the past year after the new government initiated an internal review process. Since then, the PAGE programme has been integrated into the UN Country Team’s ‘Country Implementation Programme’ falling under the 2022-2026 Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework and Cooperation Agreement. The agreement, recently approved by the government, sets the frame for the continuity of PAGE activities.

PAGE work in Guyana aims to contribute towards SDGs 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), 13 (Climate Action) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), as well as Guyana’s NDC, especially as it relates to developing the country’s renewable energy potential.