By Steven de Waal 13 April 2005 :
Public officials, private entrepreneurs and citizens are looking for new ways of creating the public domain and public services in cooperation with each other. Public-private partnerships and liberalization policies can be created if they add value aimed at the common good. The main challenge is to develop trust, a common language, common goals, and clear balance of target results, in order to improve each party’s strengths and advantages in the partnership and change of systems.
We distinguish three models of public-private cooperation:
Whenever a more efficient or quicker way of reaching public goals is sought, private parties may contribute to government projects. Governments can assign some of their tasks and risks towards private parties, but remain responsible for the outcome. Examples are found in the building and exploitation of railroads, tunnels and bridges.
If a public or a private goal can only become feasible by participation of both parties, then a true partnership can come about. For instance if one of them does not have enough financial assets to carry out the project, or if the project itself requires participation of both parties.
Examples are revitalizing inner cities, real estate projects with an integrated public infrastructure, and other projects with a wide scope.
Also known as Corporate citizenship. A private party is committed to public goals and is realizing these, with or without public parties. This is frequently seen in urban development and public housing.
The foundation of Guyana Social Enterprise (GSE) is based on partnership and collaboration. GSE is committed to finding partners we and the people of Guyana There’s much to see here. So, take your time, look around, and learn all there is to know about us. We hope you enjoy our site and take a moment to drop us a line.
Guyana lacks the body of human resources required for a growing Information (IT) infrastructure. It is not only the lack of trained and certified IT personnel that is challenging but the limited number of certified IT trainers that provide the most significant challenge. GSE has partnered with CompTia to deliver a suite of courses in an online format. The online classes with help in the short-run lack of certified trainers.
GEC with its trademarked products of DirtGlue is one of GSE ecological partners in the development of application solution in the areas of Infrastructure and the Environment for reforestation and mining. Our partner has worked in customizing solutions in the following:
Dust control
Sediment control
Erosion control
Embankment stabilization
Stockpile capping and/or sealing
Polymer Pavement System
Roadbase stabilization
Complete Waterproofing of all types of masonry, stone and clay tile
Amendments to eliminate dust and improve performance in equestrian arenas
Polymerization of sand for use as infill material for pavers, patio blocks, cobblestones
GSE, in collaboration with our solar partners d.light is recruiting Solar Entrepreneurs (SE) in Guyana. Our SEs will benefit from selling and distributing solar energy solutions to households and small businesses in their communities. GSE Solar Entrepreneur is helping in the mitigation of the rolling blackouts experienced by most Guyanese because of the lack of capacity on the national grid that is run by Guyana Power Light (GPL).
Jinko Solar is currently the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer, shipping over 11.4 GW of modules in 2018. GSE has established a relationship with Jinko that goes beyond the sale of solar panels specifically, and our goal now is the establish our community-based solar deployment strategy. Because of the magnitude of our solar deployment strategy, we conceive that it will have to be a Public and Social Enterprise initiative. Currently GSE is working with various government agencies on feasibility of the GSE Community-Base Solar Deployment Initiative.
The two main traditional crops in Guyana are sugar and rice. The state exclusively runs the Guyana sugar industry through the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo), and rice is quasi-governmental with several independent rice farmers that consolidate and sell their harvest through The Guyana Rice Marketing Board. GuySuCo happens to be the largest employer in Guyana, with over fifty thousand employees, and half of which are cane harvesters. The large percentage of cane harvesters in the employment-population of GuySuCo is due to a lack of mechanization. However, mechanization would be a significant employment cost to the nation as many of the manual laborers of the industry lack transferable skills even in the agricultural sector. The previous and current model, where labor holds the upper hand against the state or Public component in the sugar industry, has negatively impacted the broader economy in general. The continued subsidization by the British and later the European Union (EU) has not helped the sector, which has limped along for several decades. Warranted or unwarranted, the sugar industry has suffered from industrial action by its high dependence on a laborforce that consistently strikes for increased wages. The monopolistic labor component with a tendency of industrial activity has scared away any initiatives of PPPs or all-out Privatization of some of the estates in the sugar industry. However, the current situation of the sugar industry in Guyana is not sustainable.
Therefore, GSE’s initiative for the Guyana sugar industry is one of the Public (Government/GuySuCo) and a Social Entrepreneur component (Sugar Worker/Cane Harvesters) in Cooperatives (PSEP). In this arrangement, the government (Public) will retain ownership and maintenance of the mills, and the land and the cane harvesters that organized in coops will have equal portions of land to plant the sugar cane. GSE envisions significant benefits for the sugar workers beyond the production of granular sugar around the plantations and mill, as we will be advocating for the establishment of Social Enterprising Zones around the estates.
Guyana’s other major traditional cash crop is RICE. The rice model is a relatively successful Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). The Private rice farmers plant and produce the rice paddy, and Public Guyana Rice Marketing Board prepares the rice for the internal and external markets. On the infrastructure, the government has an equal partnership with the farmers on drainage and irrigation. A status quo seem to exist for rice farming in Guyana, in the current global markets of Supply Chain Management, and the packaging of flavored rice, and types like Basmati and Jasmin, there is a lot more that we can do. GSE would like to bring Guyana’s rice farming into the 21st Century by adding a new layer to the PPP, and that is Social Entrepreneurs, now we have a PPSEP. GSE is promoting the Social Entrepreneur component the PPSEP with the adaptation Customer Relation Management (CRM) and Supply Chain Management (SCM). From the GSE Platform, rice farmers and The Guyana Rice Marketing Board can partner with social entrepreneurs in agribusiness to utilize our tools to package and deliver Guyana’s most excellent rice domestically and internationally.
Guyana Healthcare system is primarily a public system with a few private hospitals and health practitioners. The percentage of Guyana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) sent on healthcare over the past decade has fluctuated between 4.5 and 5.0. Guyanese healthcare systems face many challenges and limitations, and partnerships can undoubtedly help.
Guyana has no private health insurance system, so the possibility of a Public-Private Partnership in this sector is no existent. The healthcare system in Guyana is publically standardized, and therefore, it is hardly likely that the healthcare system will evolve into a private dominated one. However, the current situation of the public healthcare system in Guyana does scream for the need for a partnership. There are several international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) that are participants in the healthcare system in Guyana. Many of the healthcare-related NGOs operating in Guyana are more disease-specific
like AIDS prevention but no broad-based strategic partnership in the sector.
Guyana Social Enterprise (GSE) posits that the Public sector of Guyana healthcare system to take a proactive stance in forging partnerships with international healthcare-related NGOs. The GSE model for Guyana is one of Public-Non-Profit Partnership (PNPP), for although non-profits are an element of a social enterprise, in the area of healthcare, the distinction requires clarity. We believe that “if you build it, they will come.” Our strategy is one that calls for the construction of small and highly efficient healthcare centers throughout Guyana. The social entrepreneurial benefits would be in job creation as the infrastructure is being constructed and maintained. A stable healthcare infrastructure helps us in the recruitment and retention of healthcare-related NGOs in long term partnerships.