Guyana Cannot Thrive While Its People Are Ignored

In 2025, Guyana stands at a crossroads. The path before us is marred by inequality, corruption, and neglect of the very people whose labour builds this nation. While the world hears grand speeches about people-centred development, sustainable development and carbon credits, the workers, farmers, and ordinary citizens, the backbone of our economy, see little benefit from the wealth that flows past them. Our hinterland communities remain deprived, our coastlands underserved, and our public institutions weakened, all while the corridors of power reward loyalty and profit over justice and equity.

Trade unionists know that real development cannot exist without the participation, protection, and empowerment of working people. Sustainable development is not merely about roads, buildings, or economic returns. It is about decent work, social justice, food security, health care, education, and the right of every Guyanese to live with dignity. Under the Jagdeo/Ali regime, these principles are ignored, and the promise of inclusionary democracy enshrined in Article 13 of our Constitution remains unfulfilled.

If we are to build a Guyana that works for all, not just a few, we must confront systemic failures, demand transparency, and insist on policies that put people before profit. Sustainable development, equitable growth, and social justice are not optional—they are the lifeblood of a nation, and it is the workers who will ensure this vision is realised.

The indigenous peoples who live in the hinterland, the very source of economic wealth derived from the rainforest, are not being denied their fair share of carbon credit revenue. Yet on the coastlands, this wealth is not being invested to create infrastructure that genuinely enhances the wellbeing of the people and the environment. Instead, we continue to witness graft, corruption, and discrimination in every sphere where the government has influence. Race, political, and social discrimination have worsened.

This regime shows no respect for sustainable development, which must place both people and the environment at its core. For Jagdeo and Ali, development is about physical infrastructure and the enrichment of themselves and their cohorts, not about the nation’s people.

Sustainable development requires more than bricks and mortar. It requires food security, new communities with modern sanitation, health policies that allocate resources to both preventive and curative care, a clean and safe environment, and protection from prolonged flooding. This model must be people-centered, guided by laws, conventions, and charters that protect every citizen’s rights and empower communities to decide the type of development that best suits their needs.

For sustainable development to succeed, resources must strengthen institutions such as the judiciary, research bodies, and policing. The pillars of society must be reinforced, and the justice system must recalibrate to ensure justice is impartial, universal, and unwavering. The executive must also demonstrate zero tolerance for corruption, graft, and nepotism.

The nation must remember that on 25 September 2015, the UN General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This must guide us, with adherence to the 17 Goals and 169 Targets, focused on People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership.

The 17 Goals are: 1) End poverty in all its forms; 2) End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture; 3) Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages; 4) Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities; 5) Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; 6) Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation;

7) Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy; 8) Promote sustained, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment, and decent work for all; 9) Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation; 10) Reduce inequality within and among countries; 11) Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable; 12) Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns;

13) Take urgent action to combat climate change; 14) Conserve and sustainably use oceans, seas, and marine resources; 15) Protect, restore, and sustainably use terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests, combat desertification, and halt biodiversity loss; 16) Promote peaceful and inclusive societies, provide access to justice for all, and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions; and 17) Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development.

We must ask ourselves how much, if anything, the current regime is doing to implement these Goals. With only five years left until 2030, Guyana has yet to launch a coordinated and sustained programme to meet these targets.

Nothing can be achieved when more than half of our population is systematically excluded from meaningful participation in governance and decision-making processes guaranteed under Article 13 of the Constitution, which enshrines inclusionary democracy. Hollow slogans of a “one Guyana” cannot substitute for genuine inclusion. They are built on exclusion and maintained by it. If we are serious about the future of this nation, we must demand a government that puts people before rhetoric, and ensures every Guyanese has a seat at the table of progress.