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CARICOM SG says investment in statistics critical
CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque.
Kaieteur News – “Investment in statistics to enable the implementation of the Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) is critical,” said CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, even as he urged both governments and international development partners to continue to support the RSDS.
In a message to mark Caribbean Statistics Day, which was observed on Thursday, October 15, LaRocque said that it is clear that the RSDS, with its strategic visioning for the improvement of statistics over the next 10 years, takes on added significance.
This year, Caribbean Statistics Day was observed under the theme: ‘Connecting the World with data we can trust’.
With this being the focus, LaRocque called to mind that the strategic framework of the RSDS was endorsed in July 2018 by the Conference of Heads of Government at its Thirty Ninth Regular Meeting.
The Secretary-General said that already the Implementation and Communication Plans for the Strategic Framework have been prepared as well as the drafts of the Resource Mobilisation and Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks that are to be considered by the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) next month.
In his message, the Ambassador noted that statistical data drive a myriad of decisions that impact the lives of the people of CARICOM and worldwide. Statistics as a science of learning provides an essential service, through making available data for decision-making in the face of uncertainty, said LaRocque.
In light of the novel coronavirus global pandemic, the Secretary-General said that statistics is required to track the status of the pandemic and its economic and social impact. In the efforts to manage and overcome the pandemic, epidemiological data underpin the information base on the spread of the virus. LaRocque noted that the collection, compilation and dissemination of basic statistics include the number of confirmed cases, the daily number of new cases and the pattern over time; the number of deaths, recoveries, active cases and the number of tests conducted.
“These are just a few of the data elements that are collected by the National Statistics Systems of countries to ascertain the magnitude of the impact of the virus on the population and on the economy and to drive the decisions for solutions to mitigate that impact,” LaRocque added.
He noted, globally, statistical methods and analyses are employed to assist the clinical trials that are being undertaken to obtain a vaccine.
“To maintain that trust, requires the necessary investment in statistics which in turn would lead to guiding evidence-based decisions geared towards an improved quality of life for the peoples of our Region and he world,” said LaRocque.
Nevertheless, he commended the statisticians of CARICOM, including those at the Secretariat, for their tremendous efforts in producing and disseminating high quality statistics to assist its quest to overcome many development challenges.
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