Twenty-seven persons graduated on Saturday last from the first-ever Citizen Diplomacy Programme, which was hosted by The Roraima Institute (TRI) of Guyana.
This programme is another way that Guyanese abroad are making sterling contributions to their homeland.
While delivering remarks at the ceremony hosted at the Cara Lodge, President of TRI, Floyd Haynes highlighted that the idea to establish this institute is to look at several ways in which citizens can participate in the transformation, help to shape policy formulation and implementation in Guyana.
In his charge to the graduates, he said, “The development of human capital starts with you, the teachers, the educators; there is going to be no development of human capital without the teachers and the educators. Once we develop that human capital, then we can begin to think about transforming and developing the nation.”
Guyana’s former Ambassador to China and the USA, Bayney Karran congratulated the graduates, while encouraging them to be adequately informed as citizen diplomats in order to contribute and present information in an effective manner.
“You must be thoroughly informed about the basis of international cooperation in the diplomatic field, that is, multi-dimensional security, democracy and development,” he said.
During the ceremony, co-founder and director of TRI Professor Paul Tennassee proposed to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Paloma Mohamed, to consider including the Citizen Diplomacy Programme at the University level.
TRI was established in 2016 as an international think tank informing good governance and transformation in Guyana.
Its mission is to provide the highest standards of research to inform public-policy initiatives, through collaboration, civic engagement and transparency.
TRI’s vision is to promote sustainable economic development by utilizing authentic research, data-driven policy creation and innovation for transformational change and impartiality.
