Basic Needs Trust Fund pursuing Sustainable Development Goals
DPI, Guyana, Monday, April 8, 2019
The Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) is vigorously pursuing the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through projects in participating countries.
Guyana is one such country, and according to Project Manager of BNTF, Guyana Dikedemma Utoh, the programme’s ninth cycle in Guyana will see a range of programmes targeting especially SDG number seven (7).
BNTF Guyana, Project Manager, Dikedemma Utoh.
SDG number 7 speaks to ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.
Utoh told the Department of Public Information (DPI) recently that CDB has been pushing renewable energy and has even been using Guyana as a model. He said Guyana has been leading the Caribbean in the use of renewable energy, especially in the water interventions in interior regions.
The BNTF is currently carrying out 11 projects that include renewable energy and energy efficiency interventions. According to Utoh, 11 projects in Regions 2 to 10 that were completed during the previous cycles within the education sector, will be furnished with solar electricity.
“These are schools that BNTF would have constructed or repaired in the past. We will make them 100 per cent enough in their energy use. Putting in the mechanisms so that when net metering becomes a reality here, the institutions would be able to sell power to the GRID.”
Under the Board of Industrial Training (BIT), the BNTF will be providing photovoltaic training, targeting specifically persons on the coast. According to the Project Manager, Guyanese in the hinterland regions seems to be much more au fait with solar electricity that those on the coast. For this project, the unit will be targeting the Soesdyke Highway, East Bank and East Coast of Demerara, and Georgetown to train persons in the installation of Photovoltaic or solar energy.
Target 7.1 of the SDG hopes, by 2030, that there will be universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. 7.2 aims to increase, substantially, the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. Target 7.3: is seeking to by 2030, to double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency.
Alexis Rodney.
Image: Department of Public Information.