CARIBBEAN                                    COMMUNITY                                    SECRETARIAT

TWENTY-NINTH MEETING OF THE                                                     

STANDING COMMITTEE OF

CARIBBEAN STATISTICIANS                                                                 SCCS/2004/29/3

Hamilton, Bermuda

22-24 November 2004                                                                               16 November 2004

RESOLUTION ON INVESTMENT IN STATISTICS AS A PRIORITY IN THE REGION

1.         Background           

The call for Governments to invest resources in statistics was proposed in a Paper presented by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat to the Resumed Session of the Eighth Session of the Community Council held in Nassau, The Bahamas on 7 July 2001.  It was pointed out at this Session that while traditionally the Statistics Sub-Programme of the Secretariat has focussed on the compilation of economic statistics including National Accounts, Merchandise Trade and Balance of Payments, more recently emphasis is being placed on the development of Social Statistics to facilitate the production of reliable data sets in this area.

The presentation in Nassau also highlighted the thrust of the Secretariat's Work Programme in the area of statistics that centered around the need to harmonise statistics in the Region given the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).  In this regard, efforts were made to encourage Member States to document statistical methodologies, the processes of data collection and to identify a core set of economic, social, environment and statistics on information and communication technology to be produced by all Member States.  These processes were to enable effective analysis and depiction of the socio-economic status of the Region while ensuring comparability through the use of international and/or regionally acceptable standards.

The Community Council in its decisions noted the information required on the status and role of statistics in the Region and also noted the developmental work being executed in statistics. The Community Council also mandated the Caribbean Community Secretariat in collaboration with the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS), to prepare in its Work Programme a 3-year plan for the improvement of the quality and range of statistics available to the Region.

2.         Preparation of the Resolution at the SCCS

At the Twenty-Sixth Meeting of the SCCS in Nassau, The Bahamas in October 2001, reservations were expressed as to whether statistics is in fact a priority in the Region.  While highlighting that Statistical Offices can attempt to utilise the scarce resources more efficiently, it was contended that these offices were under considerable pressures to fulfill the new and increasing demands for information.  It was posited that there was an inordinate balance in the provision of resources, infrastructure and the environment provided for the operations of statistical offices.

The resolution prepared at the Twenty-Sixth Meeting was refined at the Twenty- Seventh Meeting of the SCCS.  In seeking to advance the process based on the recent experience in 2001 with the Community Council by quantifying the status of the national statistical offices and the quantum of resources required to be invested, the decision was taken that the informal working group that produced and refined the resolution should design a format for the collection of the information from the statistical offices to provide support to the resolution.

The Secretariat requested Member States to provide information on the finance obtained from governments for the operating of their offices as well as other quantitative and qualitative information on the status and needs of their offices and departments. Further the Secretariat took to the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the SCCS, a draft statistical programme for the Region in order to fulfil the request by Council relative to the production of a three-year programme of work in Statistics.  The next steps are the endorsement of this programme of work by the SCCS and the presentation to the next meeting of Council by the Secretariat.

Attachment I to this Paper contains the resolution prepared by the SCCS on investment in statistics by Governments of the Region.  Attachment II to this Paper comprises elements of the Draft Statistical Programme of the Region in Table I, the proposed three-year programme of work of the actions that are required to implement the Draft Statistical Programme in Table 2 and a depiction of the collaborating agencies in Table 3.

ACTION REQUIRED

The Meeting is invited to:

(i)         endorse the resolution prepared by the Standing Committee of Caribbean

Statisticians (SCCS);

(ii)               also endorse the draft programme of work as prepared by the SCCS; and

(iii)             recommend that the resolution and the draft programme be taken to the next meeting of the Community Council for consideration.

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ATTACHMENT I

RESOLUTION

Bearing in mind the essential and ever increasing need for official statistics in the area of economic, social/gender, environment and information and communication technology for policy formulation and informed decision-making, with an indisputable nexus to positive and sustainable development;

Recalling the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics as adopted in 1994 by the United Nations Statistical Commission, which include recognition of statistics as an indispensable pillar in the information of a democratic society;

Recalling too the principles outlined in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals as a new guide to human, social and economic development, the acceptance of indicators to measure that performance and the need for adequate legal and regulatory frameworks to achieve these goals;

Conscious of the prevailing international trade and economic reconfiguration being driven by a globalisation largely underpinned by advances in technology, in particular, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs);

Conscious too of the need to equip and strengthen systems for survival and prosperity in a new world economy through provision of adequate and timely empirical data and that governments themselves have set up statistical agencies, particularly, National Statistical Offices (NSOs) to perform this function;

Particularly conscious of international trade processes at the global and hemispheric levels, especially the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the need of the Caribbean Community to participate meaningfully in these negotiations;

Mandated by the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community to create a CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and a Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to fit the Region for advantage in the new environments and to provide the statistics to favorably achieve this fit;

Considering the urgency to stabilise economies of the Region that are facing economic downturn, and the central role of statistics in that stabilisation programme;

Guided by the Community's efforts at social transformation to pursue principles of new governance and to create the environment to nurture the ideal Caribbean person as contained in the provisions of the CARICOM Charter for Civil Society;

Further guided by the need to encourage regional and international organisations to collaborate and integrate their resources in the implementation of the statistical programmes in the Region and to aggressively pursue the appropriate human resource development in this regard;

Recognising the critical role that complete, accurate, reliable, timely and relevant statistics accessible to all, will play in successful implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), nationally, regionally and internationally, and as a corner stone of democracy;

Also recognising the recent mandate given by the Resumed Session of the Eighth Meeting of the Community Council to the Secretariat, to prepare in collaboration with the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS), to include in its Work Programme proposals a three year plan for the improvement of the quality and range of regional statistics, available to the Community and its public and private sectors;

The Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) resolves as follows:

These Governments of the Caribbean are urged to:

(i)                 Give priority to the strengthening of national statistical systems, particularly NSOs to undertake the collection, processing, analysis and dissemination of statistics;

(ii)               Provide the NSOs with the human, material, technical and financial resources and logistic support to produce the data required by users;

(iii)             Enact the necessary monitoring and evaluating legislative and regulatory instruments to facilitate the execution of the mandate of the NSOs;

(iv)              Establish an intensive sensitization programme to encourage participation and early response from all stakeholders-users, producers and suppliers- with respect to the production of relevant and timely statistics.

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