GWI enhances managers’ capacity in research methodology

GINA, Guyana, Thursday, February 16, 2017

The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) today, launched a two-day training workshop in research methodology, which is geared towards preparing regional managers for the Twenty Sixth Annual Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association conference, to be held in Guyana in October.

The workshop, which is being facilitated by Dr. Colwick Wilson, is aimed at enhancing the capacity of managers and other staff members, on the preparation of publication papers in relevant areas on an evidence based research, in preparation for the conference.

Dr. Wilson, educator, satiation, researcher and interim president at the Alabama University, explained that research helps one to organise his/her thinking and to catalog the results of that process, “…So we will challenge you over the next few days to think not only on the work you do on a routine basis, but to use your creative energies in a systematic scientific way with regards to research. This a collaboration in which we come together to understand how we can do research so that it can be (the) preview,” Dr. Wilson said.

GWI’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Richard Van West- Charles said that research is seen sometimes as a luxury but, it is a day-to-day activity in people’s lives, communities and organisations.

GWI has a mission to serve in the area of safe water and sanitation, and its effectiveness has to relate to how it is organised and how knowledge is created, shared and applied, Dr. Charles noted.

“Most organisations collect data, but there is a process of the data being converted to information, then to knowledge, and in many cases, the data is just left there without moving it to information. We have to be able to understand what are some of the unanswered questions that we have that are not helping us to be able to be as effective as we are in our day-to-day work, and that is why research is a critical component,” Dr. Van West- Charles said.

The GWI Head said that “if we (GWI) want the board to be effective in its decision- making, in the formulation and approval of policies, the organisation must be evidence based. Policy formulation without evidence takes us down slippery slopes with misallocation of resources, and a waste of money that a country like Guyana really needs,” he explained.

Dr. Van West-Charles told the divisional managers that the training is timely, noting that how the companies apply and share knowledge is important because “we need to be a learning organisation at the end, hence research is critical.”

The GWI, CEO reiterated that Guyana as the host country must be able and ready to present papers that are grounded in sound scientific bases.

 

By: Synieka Thorne