Increasing demand for statistics in region
CARICOM countries continue to face increasing demands for statistics that must be timely and reliable.
Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, made this observation on the 9th Caribbean Statistics Day (CSD) celebrated recently, under the theme “Improving the Lives of People – Advancing the Action Plan for Statistics in CARICOM”.
He explained that evidenced-based decision-making is important in enabling the socio-economic development of countries and for the efficient management and use of resources.
“In particular, given the environmental concerns faced by CARICOM countries as Small Island and low-lying coastal Developing States (SIDS), the timely dissemination of high quality statistics facilitates national policy development, planning and the monitoring and evaluation required for the achievement of successful outcomes.
“The importance of access to reliable data is a key factor in the recovery and rehabilitation efforts following natural dis-asters such as the recent Hurricanes Irma and Maria,” he stressed.
Ambassador LaRocque said that statisticians of the Region continue to make contributions at the global level in the refinement and further development of the indicators for the monitoring and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
At the regional level, he highlighted that the process has been advanced with the identification of a draft core set of SDGs indicators grounded in regional and national priorities inclusive of the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA Pathway) and the Community Strategic Plan 2015-2019.
“These international and regional commitments as well as the priorities at the national level, have expanded the workload of the National Statistical Offices and other statistical producing agencies of CARICOM Member States. This has implications for the institutional framework (statistics legislation), and human resources, including training and re-tooling of staff. At the CARICOM Secretariat, the production of harmonised statistics and the provision of support to our Member States will continue to be priorities.”
The Secretary-General of CARICOM also signalled his intention to monitor the preparation and implementation of the Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics. He said that this is to assist in ensuring that timely, relevant and high-quality statistics are produced to fulfil the national, regional and international commitments that have been made in our quest to improve the lives of our people as set out in the CSD 2017 theme.
“Statisticians of the Region and, in particular, the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) must be commended for their diligence in their ongoing efforts to produce the data needed to advance our development through evidence-based information,” he further expressed. (TL)