Greater Georgetown, Guyana – Experienced Information Technology (IT) Administrators and other relevant officers in the National Statistical Offices across the Region will participate in a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Workshop on Training in Web-Based Communication Infrastructure – Mechanisms for Data Transmission.
The workshop, which will be held in Bridgetown, Barbados March 8-9, 2011, will be funded by the European Union under the Caribbean Integrated Support Programme (CISP) 9th European Development Fund arrangement that is supporting the development of statistics in CARICOM.
Personnel from the National Statistics Offices (NSOs) and the Secretariat will be trained in the use and maintenance of the system developed for the transmission of data from CARICOM Member States to the Secretariat through a secure web-based mechanism.
In the continuing quest to bolster the statistics programme in the Community, the CARICOM Secretariat also participated in a Public Sector Consultation hosted in Kingston, Jamaica, by the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN).
Funded under the United Nations Development Programme, the two-day Consultation, which concluded on February 16, was aimed at developing a Plan for an Official National Statistical System (NSS) in Jamaica for Evidence-Based Management. Its target audience of about 150 persons included senior administrators and technocrats in Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs), the compilers/heads of units who prepare statistical information for release, Policy Advisors and representatives from donor and other international development partners.
Dr. Philomen Harrison, Project Director, Regional Statistics, CARICOM Secretariat, facilitated sessions on Regional Coordination for the Improvement of Statistics at the Country Level, and Framework for the collection, analysis (including demographic, social and gender analysis) and dissemination of Social Statistics. Dr. Harrison’s attendance was supported by the EU under the Ninth EDF. Among the other presenters were Ms. Sonia Jackson and Mr. Howard Hamilton of STATIN, Mr. Gérard Chenais of Paris21, and Mr. Richard Lumsden of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and Dr. Derrick Deslandes of the University of the West Indies.
The overall objective of the workshop was to explore and identify priority issues in data production and use, including the quality, institutional and capacity building components, as a first step in informing the Statistical Master Plan for establishment of a coordinated National Statistical System.
Specifically, the objectives of the workshop were to promote participation in and awareness of the urgent need for the production and management of a sound statistical system in Jamaica; to establish a platform for the promotion of an advocacy programme for the development of quality official statistics; to collect baseline data to inform the finalisation of the Statistical Production and Use Assessment Instrument for MDAs and to take stock of international good practices.
