OECS Secretariat, Castries, St. Lucia, April 2012.

The Revised Treaty of Basseterre Establishing the OECS Economic Union, signed on June 18, 2010 as an instrument to foster deeper integration among OECS Member States, has profound implications for both the regional and national statistical systems in the area.  Informed decision-making at the regional level, as well as the design, implementation and monitoring of regional policies, require data which are not only fit for purpose in terms of coverage and timeliness, but which are also harmonized across countries.

The challenge thus facing statisticians in both the individual OECS Member States and in the institutions serving the region – including the OECS Secretariat and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) – has given local impetus to the increasingly worldwide phenomenon of strategic planning in the field of statistics.  With assistance from various development partners including the World Bank and PARIS21 (Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21^st Century), work has commenced on the design of a Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) in the OECS. 

The RSDS aims to establish a framework for the better coordination of ongoing and prospective regional initiatives in the field of statistics, build capacity for the development of key statistical series which are harmonized across OECS countries, and improve arrangements for the governance of the regional statistical system so that it can provide stronger support for the Economic Union.

An important step in the design of the RSDS has been taken with the commencement of an assessment of the current status of the OECS regional statistical system.  With assistance from a consultant, the OECS Secretariat has embarked on the process of assessing the statistical capacity, as at the end of 2011, of the national statistical systems of six of its Member States – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.  The statistical operations of the OECS itself and of the ECCB are also being examined.

The Assessment phase of formulation of the regional statistics strategy, which is now drawing to a close, is ambitious in scope and aims to cover topics such as statistical legislation and institutional frameworks, data dissemination policies, and both ongoing and future censuses and statistical surveys which OECS countries plan on undertaking in conjunction with various development partners.  Importantly, emphasis is being placed on the user perspective, to determine what uses are being made of statistics in the region, and to find out how satisfied users are with current data outputs.

A baseline assessment is currently being undertaken to provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the regional statistical system, of the threats it faces but also of the opportunities for enhancement. This process will assist the OECS and its Member States in fashioning a vision for the regional statistical system to support deeper integration, by providing pointers towards a prioritized action plan to help achieve that goal.

OECS Secretariat, Castries, St. Lucia, April 17^th 2012,  The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat is conducting an OECS training workshop in St. Lucia, on Household Survey Methods, from 16^th – 20^th April, 2012 

Staff of National Statistics Offices in OECS countries, are among those expected to significantly benefit from the five day training exercise on building capacity in Household Survey Methods.  

The primary purpose of the training will be to complement and supplement material covered in an E-Learning course on Household Survey Methods, which would have been completed by staff of OECS Statistics offices ahead of the workshop. 

This activity, part of an ongoing World Bank supported Technical Assistance project, has the medium term objectives of:

1. Enabling OECS countries to produce a harmonized regional household survey, representative at the national level, at regular intervals, in accordance with international best quality standards; and

B.   Promoting analysis of poverty and inequality based on the resulting data, at regular intervals that are relevant to policy formulation and that reflect strong country ownership. 

Sean Curtis Mathurin at the OECS Secretariats says over twenty-five (25) participants will receive additional training on the different phases of the organization and implementation of multi-topic household surveys: “This training activity is the first in a series planned to culminate in a harmonised approach to the regular collection, documentation and dissemination of household survey data in OECS Member States.” 

Mathurin projects that the training and follow up sessions will enhance the institutional capacity of National Statistical Offices in OECS countries to conduct household surveys and to produce indicators on the evolution of poverty and inequality in the OECS region. 

The initiative will also be targeted at enhancing the capacity of other government agencies in OECS countries to produce Poverty Assessments or similar analytical products. 

The OECS training workshop on Household Survey Methods is being supported with a grant funding from the World Bank Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building and UNICEF.

BRUSSELS. Three Ministers of Foreign Affairs from three Eastern Caribbean States participated in the bi-annual intersessional ACP and Joint ACP-EU Parliamentary Assembly that was held in Brussels, capital of the European Union. Honourable Sam Condor of St. Kitts and Nevis, Honourable Alva Baptiste of Saint Lucia and Honourable Dr. Douglas Slater of St. Vincent and the Grenadines attended meetings from 19 – 22 March 2012 at the ACP House and at the European Parliament with Members of African, Caribbean and Pacific national Parliaments as well as Members of the European Parliament.

February 2012, Bridgetown.  Globally and regionally there is increasing support and investment in youth programmes, support to expand the inclusion of the voices of youth in policy and decision-making processes. Investing time, efforts and resources in Caribbean youth creates new opportunities, choices and helps build the human capital and human development needed to support Caribbean development goals.