(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Urgency of Statistics and the Global Crisis: Enabling Development in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is the theme of a High-Level Advocacy Forum on Statistics set for July 30, 2009 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

High-Level representatives of government of CARICOM Member States and Associate Members, Directors of Statistics, and Chief Statisticians of National Statistical Offices are slated to meet at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Port of Spain, to assess the implications for official statistics in light of the global financial and economic downturn, with particular reference to the Community.

The High-Level Advocacy Forum on Statistics is being organised by the CARICOM Secretariat and the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS), in collaboration with the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) and the European Union. It is being convened in response to the need for the development of a highly effective statistical base and a monitoring framework of statistics with respect to the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on the Region.

The Regional Statisticians gathered in Trinidad and Tobago for the Forum are expected to determine a slate of actions for statistics to receive a higher profile for its crucial role in helping to understand the magnitude and impact of the economic and financial crisis on the Region. Also, they will begin advocating for increased and urgent support of the development of statistics in the Community.

Further, the High-Level gathering will seek to articulate the need for improvement in the production of statistics in national statistical systems in CARICOM, as well as for greater collaboration between policy and statistics, which will lead to the effective use of statistics by policy-makers and other users.

Prior to the High-Level Advocacy Forum on Statistics on July 30, the CARICOM Secretariat and PARIS21 will convene a workshop on National Strategies for the Development of Statistics from July 27-29 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. That workshop is aimed at enabling the development of strategic planning in National Statistical Systems in CARICOM Member States.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org