The Alliance For Change (AFC) has indicated that qualitative data from its ongoing “listening and grounding campaign” has so far revealed that a large percentage of Guyanese are living in poverty, and more than five years after the production of oil, citizens are still to reap the benefits. 

In a statement today, the AFC said its findings are aligned with a World Bank Report 2022 fact sheet, which indicated that 48% of Guyana population lives in poverty. 

“All Guyanese must be cognizant of the fact that, the government is only the custodian of oil revenues, the money belongs to the citizens, but the data reveals a starkly different socio-economic phenomenon – half of Guyana’s population is in absolute or transient poverty,” AFC said. 

The opposition party noted that during visit to communities across the country, the team interviewed and listened to citizens and their experiences.

The AFC said the team is getting a better sense of the unspoken rules, practices and experiences in communities such as – critical information on the agricultural /economic practices in communities- whether produce is locally grown or sourced from another location; whether flood relief is equally distributed or some have been marginalised due to political affiliation and whether subsides are granted and if so, in an equitable manner. 

In the Hinterland regions, land demarcation remains a pressing issue, the party said. 

“The strength of this team’s research is in the qualitative methodology (themes of messages) which reveals the lived experiences of citizens – “we are not getting anything from the oil money.” It relies on information generated from talking with people to construct meaning of the vulnerabilities of citizens which are sensitive and more suited for non-causal explanations- so far, these are: “the cost of living is high,” “high cost of electric and water bills,” “salaries and pensions are not sufficient,” “poor drainage and deplorable roads,” “with oil the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer” “the oil money is not reaching us,” “where is the oil money going?” the AFC said.

Quoting its Leader, Nigel Hughes, the Alliance said the ‘listening and grounding’ team will visit every region of Guyana and meet with the vulnerable, the less fortunate and the marginalised, as it continues to gather data on the state of affairs of citizens. The information gathered is expected to inform governance policies. 

Hughes said the exercise is not intended to reach electorates from one particular ethnic group but it is cross-sectional. 

“The AFC is political party, competing nationally in every square inch of this country, in every village, in every city, in every municipality, we don’t approach it on the basis of splitting votes because we do not recognize that people belong ethnically to anybody and we are going to meet everybody as far South as Guns, as far East as the Corriverton and Moleson Creek, as far West as Baramita or Barima to understand what our citizens, are experiencing at every socio-economic level.” The campaign reach also includes the vulnerable, marginalised and those not afforded the equality of opportunity in every sector in the fastest growing economy in the world, their homeland!” the AFC Leader said. 

It was noted that data analysis will be done cross-sectional with reference to academia, reports from international agencies such as the World Bank, United Nations, Inter-American Development Bank and Transparency International among other agencies. 

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