Country profilesGuyana

Humanitarian profile

Flooding during the rainy season is a major humanitarian problem that Guyana has to face almost annually. In January 2005, torrential rain caused massive floods that wiped out agriculture and homes. Estimates said that the flooding affected about a third of the population. Guyana also has a growing infection rate for HIV/AIDS. The World Bank estimated that 2.5 percent of the adult population in Guyana is infected with HIV/AIDS.

Country snapshot

Guyana was Britain’s only colony on the mainland of South America until it won independence in 1966. Before the British ruled over Guyana, the country had been part of different European empires including the Dutch, French and Spanish.

Culturally, Guyana is closer to the English speaking Caribbean than the Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries of South America. For instance, the Guyanese play cricket and the country hosted part of the Caribbean’s 2007 Cricket World Cup. Some of top cricketers for the West Indies cricket team have also come from Guyana.

With a population of around 750,000, Guyana is one of the least populous countries in South America. Around 90 percent of these people live in a narrow and fertile strip along Guyana’s coast. Further inland, barely penetrable rainforest dominates Guyana. This rainforest is home to one of the world’s most diverse and unique eco-systems.

The World Bank estimates that around a third of Guyana’s population live in poverty. Guyana covers a square area which is slightly smaller than Britain making it the third smallest country in South America. Guyana’s climate is generally humid and tropical and there are two main rainy seasons from May to August and from November to January.

The country sits on South America’s northeast coast next to the Atlantic Ocean. To the east lies Suriname, to the south Brazil and to the west Venezuela. English is the official language of Guyana and Georgetown is the capital. Ethnically, Guyana is split mainly between the descendents of workers from India and Africa.

Government

The 65-seat National Assembly is voted for at least every five years, although there is no fixed length for the term. The leader of the winning party becomes the President and he or she appoints the Prime Minister. Most of Guyana’s post-independence governments have been pro-Socialist.

Politics in Guyana are split mainly along ethnic lines with the Indo-Guyanese and the Afro-Guyanese supporting different political parties. The Afro-Guyanese People’s National Congress party (PNC) ruled from independence until 1992 but since then the Indo-Guyanese People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has dominated politics in Guyana.

Economy

Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, is the headquarters of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) whose main purpose is to promote economic integration between its members. Agriculture is the main employer in Guyana.  Sugar, timber, bauxite and gold are the biggest foreign currency earners and account for an estimated 60 percent of the economy. Guyana’s economy is small and is valued at about $5 billion a year, comparable to Kosovo or Sierra Leone.

Guyana’s economy experienced modest growth throughout the first decade of the 21^st century. Since independence Guyana’s governments have tended to be socialist in character, the state controls much of the economy. Government expenditure as a proportion of GDP is normally over 50 percent. High crime rates, low education rates and poor infrastructure are a brake on attracting foreign investors. Remittances are an important part of Guyana’s economy and the World Bank said they made up around a quarter of its total GDP.

History

European colonialists claimed Guyana as part of their empires from the end of the 15^th century. In 1831 Britain formally declared the area that is modern day Guyana to be British Guiana. Slaves played a major role in the development of Guyana’s economy until it was abolished in 1834.

In 1966, Guyana became independent from Britain and in 1970 it became a republic. In 1978, 918 people, mainly Americans, died in a mass suicide at a camp in northern Guyana set up by American Jim Jones who led a cult called Peoples Temple.

In 1999, Bharrat Jagdeo took over as Guyana’s President after the incumbent president stepped down on health grounds. As head of the PPP, he has since won two elections in 2001 and 2006.

Legal snapshot

Guyana’s judiciary is nominally independent but a shortage of qualified staff and funds make it vulnerable to outside pressure and corruption. In 2005, Guyana severed historical links to the Privy Council in London and adopted the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice as its highest court of appeal.

There is little protection of intellectual property rights in Guyana and corruption is considered endemic. Transparency International regularly places Guyana in the bottom third of its global Corruption Perception Index.

Guyana does not accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.