Guyana - President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has told global leaders at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) that small states can deliver global solutions by building strong international partnerships.
He pointed to Guyana’s progress in health, energy, climate
and food security to make his case.The head of state made the case in his address to the CGI Annual Meeting, in New York on Wednesday.
The annual meeting is a forum that brings together heads of government, business leaders and philanthropists to commit to action on global challenges.
President Ali acknowledged that small developing countries face the same global system as larger economies, but with less financial and human resource capacity.
However, he rejected the view that size limits a country’s influence.
“Guyana is indeed a small state, but we are learning that the power of a country is not measured only by size and population. Power can also be measured by the partnership a country builds,” he said, describing partnership as “a great equaliser of our age.”
“The question, therefore, is not whether a small state can do everything itself. The question is, can we build partnerships that allow us to do what we could never do alone?” the president said.
He noted that small states cannot independently finance every laboratory, medical technology or research programme, but can serve as the ideal pilot for research, and bring political will, human resources and the ability to convene the right partners.
President Ali cited health care as the clearest example of that approach.
“For too long, geography helped to determine the quality of health care a citizen could receive,” he said.
Guyana has extended its partnership with the Mount Sinai Health System and Hess Corporation for five years, with the aim of transforming the public health system by 2030.
According to the President Ali, the partnership has already produced baseline medical data for every primary school child, and secondary school students are next.
He also pointed to a robotic cardiac surgery performed by telemedicine between Guyana and India, which he described as the longest-distance procedure of its kind in the world.
On health education, President Ali said partnerships with international universities, institutes and training programmes have helped deliver the largest intake of nurses, patient care assistants, lab technicians and doctors graduating in the country.
The Guyanese leader said the same model is driving Guyana’s work on climate and biodiversity.
The Global Biodiversity Alliance, which Guyana launched two years ago, now has 140 members, including countries, research institutions and academic institutions.
He said Guyana, a country of just over one million people, now offers the world a model for tropical forest management, biodiversity and forest carbon credits.
On energy, he noted that Guyana’s partners and financing sources are diversified across the Middle East and the United States, including US EXIM.
He added that Guyana is positioning itself as a food security hub for the Caribbean and beyond, working with partners such as Brazil’s Embrapa and the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).
“It gives us the quickest pathway to technology, to people, to human assets, and, of course, to finances,”the president said of partnerships.
He also highlighted government’s investment in technology to bring services closer to citizens. He said all government services will be available on a single app, MyGuyana, by next year, and that hinterland investments have cut medevacs from one of the most remote locations by almost 95 per cent.
The president closed by inviting participants to learn more about “the Guyana story.”
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