(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite has told the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians that despite the general lack of appreciation for statistics as a strategic resource for decision-making, good governance, planning, accountability and management, it is still a vital tool for development, the business of government, and to keep individual citizens informed about what government is doing.
The CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General told the Meeting on Oct 27 in Barbados that statistical data analyses undertaken under the Caribbean Integration Support Programme (CISP) would guide implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), assist in evaluating its operation and performance and ultimately impact the lives of Caribbean peoples.
Acknowledging that global challenges were fuelling the demand for new data and shorter timeframes especially in the Caribbean, and the challenge faced by the Caribbean in recruiting and retaining statisticians, Ambassador Applewhaite advocated strategies that could result in the strengthening of the capacity of existing staff and facilitate greater cooperation among the national statistical offices through attachments and exchange visits.
She pointed to ongoing initiatives for capacity building in statistics in the Region. These include an annual course in Demographic Analysis, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), offered through the University of the West Indies. This programme has trained more than sixty persons in the Region within the past three years.
In addition, Ambassador Applewhaite pointed to the First Regional Statistical Research Seminar scheduled for November, as a capacity-building mechanism, introduced to enable statistical development through cooperation across the Region, in the conduct of research involving examination of statistical methodologies, increased analysis of the data produced, and the dissemination of the research findings.
