Guyana’s outgoing permanent representative to the OAS in Washington, Odeen Ishmael, says that to alleviate poverty is to promote democracy.

In his farewell address last Wednesday at the Organisation of American States (OAS) he said, “We continue to expound the view that democracy will improve the lives of our citizens. But when these citizens continue to live in poverty despite the grounding of political democracy, they begin to question the values of such a system, and ultimately they demonstrate on the streets and worsen the state of instability and may in desperation support anti-democratic groups which promise to alleviate their problems.”

Ishmael, who has been designated Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela, served for ten years in the OAS and has also been Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States.

While the OAS grapples with the defence, promotion and strengthening of democracy, the time is opportune for it to be fully involved in the fight against poverty, Ishmael declared.

He also noted that despite numerous multilateral programmes formulated over the past 15 years, poverty in the Americas has not decreased.

He observed that the proportion of the poor has increased, while, in general, almost every member state of the OAS has shown significant increases in their GDP and their per capita income. The growing poverty in the hemisphere of the Americas clearly indicates that the wealth generated is not distributed equitably, Ishmael argued.

In that light, he is calling on all the countries, with the support of the OAS, to work together to apply with great urgency the recommendations of the recently-concluded High Level Meeting on Poverty, Equity and Social Inclusion in Venezuela. This, he pointed out, will demonstrate to the growing army of the poor and desperate that the organisation is interested in their welfare and determined to fight the root causes of poverty.

In the Caribbean region, he noted, the HIV and AIDS problem has taken on added dimensions. “For the countries of the Caribbean it has become a security issue, and unless we see a reversal in the effects, it can easily have political repercussions. This Permanent Council must grapple with this crucial matter and begin to discuss its political ramifications and suggest political solutions from the multilateral perspective.”

He also posited that the alleviation of poverty is linked to the problem of the debt burden. But he lamented that as a hemispheric body, the OAS has not “seriously examined the issue”. The time is ripe, he declared, for the member states of the OAS, under the umbrella of the Summit of the Americas, to set up a high-level working group on debt reform.

This working group should attempt a fresh look at the origins, structure and growth of debt and adopt a creative approach to debt relief, based on the rationale that the “alleviation of the debt burden will liberate additional resources for development for mutual North/South benefit”.

Turning to the issue of globalisation, the ambassador asserted there must be no double standards where developed countries demand that they market subsidised commodities to compete with those produced by developing countries which were forced to cut out subsidies as a condition for multilateral financial assistance.

“What is desired is a ‘humane globalisation’ which allows for special and differential treatment for the smaller economies and which encourages not only free trade but fair trade as well,” Ishmael said.

In this regard, he called again for the establishment of a Regional Integration Fund to assist the smaller economies to enable them to set up a competitive base for participation in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

While the OAS has scored many successes over the past ten years, Ishmael remarked, it also has seen some setbacks. “My greatest disappointment is that we have not arrived at an acceptable solution to the political situation in Haiti.” Noting his deep interest in the Haitian cause since he presided over the Permanent Council in the last quarter of 1994, he offered, despite his departure from the OAS, to assist the organisation and the Haitian delegation to continue efforts aimed at a solution to the current impasse.