More than 60,000 pensioners and over 21,000 other vulnerable people, including children living with disabilities, benefited from a social safety net programme during the COVID-19 pandemic, Human Services Minister Vindhya Persaud said on Wednesday.
Persaud was speaking at a project closure workshop for “Support to Safety Nets for Vulnerable Populations Affected by Coronavirus,” held at Cara Lodge.
The programme component was financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and implemented by the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security. It was approved in December 2020 as part of the government’s emergency response to the pandemic.
A cash transfer scheme initially targeted about 56,000 Old Age Pension beneficiaries, growing to nearly 60,000 pensioners by the end of the programme, Persaud said.
The ministry also created a register of children living with disabilities for the first time, providing a 100,000 Guyana dollar ($478) cash grant to just under 5,000 children. In total, more than 21,000 people were supported on the assistance register, she said.
The project funded the Guyana Social Services System, a digital platform centralising data for programmes including Old Age Pension, Public Assistance and disability services.
The ministry plans to expand the system to cover gender-based violence interventions, women’s empowerment initiatives and child protection services by the end of 2027.
A Survivor Advocate Programme trained 34 advocates to support survivors of gender-based violence, exceeding an initial target of 30, Persaud said.
The project also established the ministry’s first Monitoring and Evaluation Unit, now being expanded to track programme performance.
An electricity subsidy scheme, initially covering just over 15,000 pensioner households, now benefits more than 47,000 pensioners, she said.
IDB Chief of Operations Ivan Gaviria praised Persaud’s leadership and said the bank had rapidly mobilised resources to deliver cash grants and other support during the pandemic.
“What truly matters is whether people were served effectively, equitably, and with dignity through the operation and the services we financed. In this particular case, I believe they were,” Gaviria said.
