Guyana now boasts real access to advanced information − Minister McCoy tells WSIS Forum
Guyanese are benefitting from a number of innovative programmes which are aimed at bridging the digital divide, despite the number of threats on the nation’s economic and social development, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The PPP/C Administration has been successful in advancing real access to information, expanding programmes geared towards building a knowledge-based society, and a democratic framework for inclusive governance across all sectors of the country.
Minister within the Office of the Prime Minister with responsibility for Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy, M.P, said the major successes were achieved through “an all-hands-on-deck” approach with national stakeholders.
“We channelled expertise and resources towards getting our schools and other institutions of learning fully online, with the necessary capacity to deliver the new learning experience consistently and with ease,” Minister McCoy asserted Tuesday, during his remarks at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum, at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
He said the interventions to strengthen the national digital infrastructure are now serving as springboards for more targeted national programmes. The structure of the Guyana Learning Channel was redesigned and expanded to reach a wider audience.
“Our government and public services still needed to reach the citizens and we responded accordingly, by not only ensuring that more services were put online, but by also building-in facilities, and mechanisms to give our citizens the ability to access those services at the community and household levels across the country.”
The administration also launched the Guyana Online Academy for Learning (GOAL) scholarship initiative in 2021, which afforded citizens the opportunity to gain academic and technical qualifications from certificate to PhD levels, and to upskill with world-class industry training.
Minister McCoy stated that the Guyana government has gone even further with a national online remedial learning programme, which caters for persons who did not complete secondary school. “This could now be done from the comfort of their homes or at any of their more than 200 community ICT Hubs,” he added.
The minister said due to what was experienced between 2015 and 2020 under the previous administration, Guyana’s progress remains fragile, citing that the five-year period brought into focus the dire need for the nation to be strengthened.
To this end, he believes that the WSIS networking platform has the potential to do more in helping small developing nations like Guyana and other CARICOM member states, to expand and bolster their digital infrastructure.
The support, Minister McCoy pointed out, could help to mitigate external shocks from the ongoing pandemic among other matters.
The World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022 represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ICT for development community. It provides structured opportunities to network, learn and participate in multi-stakeholder discussions and consultations on WSIS implementation.
The WSIS Forum 2022, which will conclude on June 3 is being held under the theme: “ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion, and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”.