Mapping Guyana’s Diaspora

The overall objective of this initiative is to contribute to the economic development of Guyana through the support and engagement of the Guyanese diaspora. Project outputs that will contribute towards this objective include the registration of the Guyana diaspora in North America and the Caribbean and the documentation of the skills and resources as well as diaspora return interest and plans to support the development of Guyana.

This initiative will complement the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) efforts by conducting a study of the Guyana diaspora in North America (Canada and the United States), the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. A mapping exercise will be used to determine how many persons, organizations and associations constitute the diaspora in the above mentioned regions/countries, who and where they are and what repertoire of skills they possess to develop a directory of available skills. Further information will be gathered on their expectations and interest in supporting the development of Guyana. An assessment using consultative processes with the Government of Guyana (GoG) and the private sector will be carried out to determine the existing skills and needs in Guyana to establish what skills /resources are needed for country development.

An online database will be established and capacity building initiatives will include a training exercise with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Team (Information Technology Specialist) to build competencies to manage the project’s online database that will be established for diaspora registration and information gathering.