The proposed project is the “Guyana Education Sector Improvement Project (P159519)” by the World Bank. The objective of component 2 is to improve the learning environment of the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at The University of Guyana (UG). It would support construction of a new Health Sciences facility.

The proposed new facility would include a four storey building with a capacity to accommodate 850 students. The building will be energy efficient, utilise natural lighting, where possible, and use solar panels to offset energy supply to the building. In addition, elevators and ramps will be built in order to accommodate differently‐abled students.

There will be ten classrooms capable of seating 50 students each, three of which will have collapsible walls, thereby creating a larger space, and two classrooms with a seating capacity of 75. All classrooms would be required for the accreditation process by the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professions (CAAM‐HP). The classrooms must have adequate ventilation (AC or Fans), proper lighting, comfortable seating, internet access to facilitate teaching, LCD projectors and computersfor lectures, and white boards. Four laboratory facilities will be built, including a state‐of‐ the‐art anatomy lab, a ‘skills’ lab, a biochemistry/haematology lab and a microbiology lab. The labs would include proper ventilation (AC), trained laboratory staff and adequate relevant equipment. The proposed new FHS Building would be organised to respond to current and future teaching, research and services demands. A library and a boardroom are expected to be built and approximately 20% of space will be assigned to offices. Considering the limited resources available for this component and high cost of construction, it is necessary that proposed new FHS building meet the Caribbean regional or international standards within the budget.

The safeguards Policies of the World Bank that were triggered for this component were OP 4.01 Environmental Assessment and OP 4.09 Pest Management. Both will be secured by application of the Environmental Management Plan, which will be disclosed on both UG and World Bank’s websites prior to appraisal. An Environmental Specialist will be hired by UG project unit to support the preparation and implementation of the Environmental Management Plan.