Jordan sees need to guard against misinformation during ‘silly season’

As Guyana crawls into the elections season, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan is warning against misinformation.

The Minister on Monday pointed out that “you will find all kinds of information being put out unsupported by any source or any factual data behind it… especially in this season as we seek to go into called the silly season but more aptly known as the elections season.”

He was at the time addressing a workshop on the Voluntary National Review of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The Minister pointed to the fact that several indicators within the SDG framework are expressed as a percentage of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). However, he believes the GDP is “understated”.

“If our GDP is understated as I think it is at the moment, then our ratios will be incorrect and give a misleading picture of the national position,” Jordan noted.

The workshop sought to identify progress made and challenges experienced in meeting the SDGs to provide an accurate report for the next UN General Assembly. There are 17 SDGs which is a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

“We want to ensure that the content presented to that high-level political forum not only looks at the identified highlighted goals highlighted by the UN but also the rest of the goals in the Guyana Framework,” Roopnauth said.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) builds on the Millenium Development goals and seeks to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030