(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) The first Regional Workshop bringing together some seventeen Civil Registrars and Vital Statisticians from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States ended in Georgetown, Guyana on Wednesday, 6 April, with participants endorsing an initiative to establish a CARICOM Association of Civil Registrars and Vital Statisticians.
The Association will lead in the execution of the plan of action adopted by participants attending the workshop, who made call for enhanced data coordination between civil registrars and vital statisticians within CARICOM countries.
According to Acting Chief Demographic Statistician of the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), Mr. Srdjan Mrkic, cooperation between statisticians and registrars will position countries of the Region to garner improved data collection mechanisms. He explained that accuracy and efficiency in the statistical data collection process are considered vital to CARICOM countries achieving their Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
The UNSD official, who assisted in guiding discussions at the three-day forum, noted that participants left the workshop with a commitment to engage their political leaders to facilitate the new collaborative approach between the agencies responsible for civil registrars and vital statisticians.
He added that Guyana, as host of the CARICOM Secretariat, would receive support from the more developed CARICOM States to upgrade its statistical database.
The newly formed CARICOM Association of Civil Registrars and Vital Statisticians is intended to serve as a Regional body that would provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences among Member States. The group will present the recommendations of the workshop to the CARICOM Council For Human and Development (COHSOD) at the end of this month.
At the close of the workshop, acting Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda, Carden Conliffe Clarke described the exchange as very constructive.
Meanwhile, Population Data and Knowledge Sharing Specialist of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Carlos Ellis said, “We are committed to collaboration with the populations of the CARICOM Region within the resources of the organization.”
The workshop was funded by World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and included facilitators from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) based in New York and the UNFPA, Country Support Team (CST), Mexico, and the PAN American Health Organisation (PAHO).
CONTACT:
Carolyn Walcott
cwalcott@caricom.org
