Georgetown : Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon and United States Ambassador to Guyana Brent Hardt have begun discussions on the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID), Leadership and Democracy (LEAD) project.
Dr. Luncheon and Ambassador Hardt met yesterday and held positive and constructive discussions on the LEAD project. Both sides have agreed to continue discussions next week with a view to charting the way forward.
The project was put on hold as discussions were agreed on between the Governments of Guyana and the United States (US) with a view to commencing re-engagement of the project at a later date.
In July 2013, the US launched the LEAD project without the formal sanction of the Guyana Government. The project’s non-approval was formally indicated to the relevant authorities on October 26, 2013. In spite of this, the USAID continued to implement the project, even as Government maintained that Guyana was committed to re-engaging the discussion process, but not when the activities under the LEAD project were still being implemented.
