Statistical Capacity-Building Underway in CARICOM Member States

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has embarked on a series of exercises across the Region as it steps up its efforts to build capacity in statistics. The Community is working towards providing robust, quality statistics to inform and advance its development thrust.

Over the past months, the Regional Statistics Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat with support from international development partners, led the exercises which saw missions to some Member States.

Mid-June, the Secretariat and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN-ECLAC organised a Technical Meeting on the Framework of the 2017 Round of the International Comparison Programme (ICP). The workshop was held at the CARICOM Secretariat Georgetown, Guyana, 10-14 June 2019. UN-ECLAC is the Regional Coordinator of the ICP for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The objective of the workshop was to proceed with the completion of the work for the 2017 Round, and to discuss with participating countries, challenges and problems encountered in the implementation of the Programme. The sessions targeted statisticians working in the areas of household prices (including special price surveys – construction, rental and education) and National Accounts (including government). Statisticians from more than six Member States participated in the workshop where technical assistance was provided to assist them in completing, where possible, the special price survey forms that were not submitted by them at the time of the meeting.

Also among the efforts to identify gaps in indicators and boost statistical capacity of Member States and the Secretariat in specific sectors were assessment workshops completed in agriculture and rural development in Trinidad and Tobago 1-4 July, and in Guyana 8-10 April; on gender in Dominica 24-27 June and Suriname 1-5 April. The workshops, which the Secretariat executed, were supported by the Government of Italy with funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).