(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The absolute necessity of timely and accurate statistics to shape the development and growth of the Caribbean was underscored on Thursday, July 30 at a High Level Advocacy Forum on Statistics: the Urgency of Statistics and the Global Crisis held in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Forum was coordinated by the CARICOM Secretariat in collaboration with the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) and with the assistance of International Development Partners including the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Small Island Development States (UNDESA SIDS) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean (UNECLAC).

During the course of the one-day event that featured a series of panel discussions focusing on placing statistics in its appropriate place on the national and regional agenda, delegates and speakers at the opening of the Forum stressed that statistical data had to be at the core of policy decisions.

Easy access to information; training and retaining staff and the improvement of operational capacity; more investment in the field and more marketing of data-driven policy decisions were among the areas delegates identified as critical to raising the profile of the field in order for it to perform its role of facilitating development in the Region.

Mrs. Juliana Johan Boodram, Permanent Secretary (ag) in the Ministry of Planning, Housing and the Environment, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, pointed out that the development of the Caribbean Region had to be based in reality and not wishful thinking, hence the need for complete, relevant and timely statistics on which plans and polices were based.

The Permanent Secretary (ag) noted that Statistics constituted an essential element in improving the ability of a government to develop appropriate policies, manage the economic and social development processes, monitor improvements in the living standards of the people, and to report this progress to the public. Statistics, she said, also allowed the private sector and the general public to assess business opportunities, risks and prospects and assist with planning, decision-making, monitoring, evaluation and reporting on business activities.

“Statisticians, economists and demographers are vital for the monitoring of socio-economic trends, profiling our societies, assessing our investment risks and showcasing both our strengths and weaknesses and guiding our policies and plans for development. Indeed statistics are the eyes of the policy makers; statistics are at the heart of the development process,” she emphasized.

“We neglect statistics to our own peril. We need complete, timely, relevant, reliable and comparable official statistics on which to base our plans and policies to guide the development process, the Permanent Secretary said while delivering the feature address at the Forum’s opening session,” Mrs Johan Boodram added.

She said that the current global economic and financial crisis had been likened to the Great Depression of the 1930s that had widespread repercussions around the world with Small Island Developing states (SIDs) of the Caribbean and mainland countries all affected.

“The effects of the global crisis are as inescapable as other global challenges such as climate change and sea-level rise. Yet, the present reality can actually afford us an opportunity to plan new and innovative ways to safeguard our futures to the end that we will not again fall prey to such an economic crisis,” Mrs. Boodram said.

The Hon Erwin Contreras, Minster of Economic Development and Commerce of Belize, in his presentation, cautioned that as gloomy as the economic outlook was, the Region could not bury its head in the sand and hope that its challenges and problems would disappear.

“Our governments must act expeditiously and make appropriate policy interventions, which can only be as good as the statistical data on which they are based. It is no longer sufficient to produce GDP estimates on an annual basis. The times demand that these figures are available at least on a quarterly basis together with a comprehensive set of accompanying national accounts statistics,” the Minister said.

He added that given the social dislocations that were likely as a result of the financial crisis, it was highly imperative that poverty statistics were compiled on a more regular and consistent basis.

“The ad-hoc arrangements for measuring poverty that currently prevails in all of our countries, with the exception of Jamaica, are grossly inadequate for any meaningful interventions to be made on behalf of the most vulnerable persons,” Minister Contreras said.

Adding his remarks at the Opening Ceremony, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM said, although the crisis spurred the acknowledgement of the need for statistics in development, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) had recognized the growing need for data to meet the demands of monitoring and informing about globalization and about the establishment and performance of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) He stressed that though the global focus was on the recovery of the developed and the so-called emerging economies, small highly indebted middle-income countries needed to focus on creating special mechanisms to help manage the crisis.

Mr. Mohamed-El-Heyba Lemrabott Berrou, Manager, PARIS21 Secretariat pointed out that if the need for statistics was evident in 1999 when PARIS 21 was established, it was now more acutely felt in this era of economic and financial crisis. He acknowledged that the growing recognition of the crucial role of statistics was building over the past few years.

In brief remarks at the opening, Mr. Nicola Di Pietrantonio, Programme Officer, Delegation of the European Commission in Trinidad and Tobago, underscored the importance of statistics in planning and pointed to the key role the media had to play.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org