Guyana seeks IDB help for struggling NIS, mental health

Nov 07, 2015 News

Guyana is talking with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for help in the functioning of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and better ways to assist senior citizens and other vulnerables.

Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan

The meeting took place yesterday between Winston Jordan, Minister of Finance, and IDB’s Chief of Social Protection and Health Division, Ferdinando Regalia, and his team. They discussed support for Health and Social Protection.
NIS, which provides pension for workers who have retired, has been struggling in recent years to raise its revenue base. Its expenses have been rising and while there is cash, the situation should not continue, assessors of the scheme have warned.
There has been a rash of suicides in recent years even as Guyana is boasting one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
In discussing the challenges that a project of this nature presents, Minister Jordan told the team that it should consider Guyana’s unique cultural context rather than employ a generic Caribbean approach.
He pointed to the Basic Nutrition Sprinkles programme and said that while the initiative to provide necessary nutrients to pregnant mothers was timely and laudable, the implementation and project design was poor and this resulted in significant losses.
Regalia disclosed that the bank had met with the Ministers of Public Health and Social Protection to discuss Maternal and Mental Health and Newborn and Child Welfare, since it has done extensive work in those areas in the Caribbean- particularly in Jamaica and the Bahamas- and Latin America.
He highlighted the key challenges of project implementation as the lack of capacity and coordination of efforts but added that the Bank can lend support in those areas.

Government has started talks with IDB for possible help in restructuring NIS.

On the issue of the NIS, Regalia said that the IDB makes provisions for budgetary support through its Labour and Pensions Unit but focuses on contributions. The IDB team will be working on a Subsidies Scheme.
He added that technical cooperation on a diagnostic proposal and implementation plan can begin in 2016.
And this will ensure that payments are made, that the right kind of targeting is done through the use of the census and other data and that the beneficiaries are efficiently managed through the use of management information systems, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The IDB official cautioned that the success of this, however, was hinged on overcoming the challenges of reaching the neediest in Guyana’s remote communities.
Regalia said that Guyana could benefit from the mobilisation of resources of between US$300,000 – US$350,000, in 2016 to diagnose problems.
He said that NIS can possibly tap into the bank’s Loan Programme, which could come from the 2017/18 IDB-Guyana Country Allocation.
“Minister Jordan said that the agenda put forward by Mr. Regalia was in keeping with the overall thrust of the Government’s plans to improve the delivery of services associated with mental and maternal health, the elderly and new born and child welfare.”