Assistant Secretary-General underscores importance of statistics to CARICOM

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Ambassador Colin Granderson, Assistant Secretary-General, Foreign and Community Relations Directorate at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, on Tuesday said statistics played a vital role in the Community because “it is crucial in providing data for evidence-based policies that can guide and monitor progress at the country and regional levels.”
Ambassador Granderson was speaking at the prize-giving ceremony for the Regional Statistics Inter-School Quiz and Essay Competitions hosted at the CARICOM Secretariat in observance of Caribbean Statistics Day. This year’s celebration of Caribbean Statistics Day occurs during the worldwide commemoration of International Year of Statistics, under the theme Statistics in Everyday Life; Let us Educate and Appreciate.
In his remarks, Ambassador Granderson noted that the Regional Statistics Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat worked with countries and international and regional organisations in an effort to strengthen capacity to produce a range of statistics and indicators that were then disseminated to users.
He said there were key international partners that played a significant role in supporting the efforts of statistical development in the Region.  According to him they were contributing through the development and implementation of frameworks and methods to address and overcome the challenges being experienced by countries in statistical data collection, compilation and dissemination.
Ambassador Granderson said he hoped “the discipline of statistics will continue to play a central and positive role in the lives of all of the peoples of our Community and that there would be increased awareness of the profession through the establishment of the professional association of statisticians.”
He also used the opportunity to thank the schools that participated in the competitions and congratulated the winners.
“We feel assured that the key goals of Statistics2013 through their participation have been achieved and these goals are- increasing public awareness of the power and far-reaching impact of statistics on all aspects of society; promoting and nurturing statistics as a profession, especially among young people; and promoting creativity and development in the sciences of probability and statistics” he said.
Trophies and prizes were presented to first to third place winners during the ceremony. The winner of the quiz competition in the primary school category was Winfer Gardens Primary, while in the secondary school category, first place went to Brickdam Secondary. The best all-round players were Kessia Fraser from North Georgetown Primary School and Ralicia Mohamed of St Stanislaus College. The first place winner of the primary essay competition was Jada Angoy of St. Angela’s Primary, while Khrista Christian from North Ruimveldt Multilateral School copped the top spot in the secondary category.
There was also a logo competition which was won by Roydenn Silcott from Montserrat and a motto competition where Jason Reynolds from Dominica claimed the top prize.