It is the above context of strategic development of the Region, monitoring development,

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1 DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE SECOND HIGH LEVEL ADVOCACY FORUM ON STATISTICS: STRATEGISING FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATISTICS IN THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY (CARICOM) IN THE POST 2015 DEVELOPMENT AGENDA 1. BACKGROUND The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat through its Regional Statistics Programme has been working with the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) of its Member Countries to enable the production and dissemination of harmonised, high quality statistics for use in public and private decision making and for monitoring the achievement of various developmental goals and targets. Among the frameworks that have been developed to achieve these outcomes has been a Regional Statistical Work Programme (RSWP) which was in response to a mandate received from the Eighth Meeting of the Resumed Session of the Community Council of Ministers (Council) in July In response to the statistical needs of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME, the RSWP was developed by the Secretariat and the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and was subsequently presented to and approved by the Fifteenth Meeting of Council in January However the formal adoption of the RSWP by the NSOs was limited. The RSWP has since been updated through funding provided by two International Development Partners, the European Union, which provided funding for the development of the overall system and elements and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) that enabled further refinement of the RSWP taking into consideration regional/national priorities and the capacity of countries to implement the RSWP. At its Fifteenth Meeting, Council also received a Resolution on Regional Statistical Development (Resolution) prepared by the Secretariat and the SCCS which in the context of the demands being made on statistical agencies and the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, addressed the need for strengthening of the statistical systems in Member States to improve the coverage, reliability and quality of the traditional areas of statistics and to develop frameworks to measure new and emerging issues in the economic, social and environmental spheres as well as statistics on Information Communication Technologies. The Resolution was passed by Council. Among the decisions of the Fifteenth Meeting of Council were the following: Council urged governments of the region to give priority to investing in national statistical systems; it endorsed the need to invest these resources in statistics on a sustained basis focusing on the human and financial resources needed by national statistical offices; it also urged Member States to update their statistical legislation to obtain information required for decision making, recommended that national and regional statistical development strategies with financial proposals be prepared to enable implementation of the RSWP and called on regional and international organizations to collaborate and integrate their resources to enable greater efficiency in the provision of technical assistance and funding of the programmes to be instituted in statistics in the Region 1

2 There are many challenges facing CARICOM countries as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) that impact the capacity to implement the RSWP and fundamentally affect the availability of statistics for use by policy and decision makers. The changes taking place in the global environment compounded by the recent economic and financial crisis of 2008 have pointed to increased demand for timely, relevant and high quality statistics for inputs into policies for sustained economic growth and development to act as early warning signals for external and domestic shocks to withstand and mitigate the effects on the economies and the citizens of the Region. Fundamentally, the improvement in the quality of life of the peoples of the Region including the reduction of poverty and employment and enhanced health status are fundamental objectives that are to be achieved. Of significance is that the year 2015 brings into focus the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the assessment of the outcomes achieved based on measurable indicators available from the National Statistical Systems (NSS) of countries. Further, the development agenda in the post 2015 era has already begun to take shape with the establishment by the Secretary General of the United Nations of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons (Panel) on the Post 2015 Development Agenda. The report 1 of the Panel expressed the intent of finishing the job started through the Millennium Declaration. Further, it called for a data revolution for sustainable development, with a new international initiative to improve the quality of statistics and information available to citizens. It further emphasized the need to take advantage of new technology, crowd sourcing and improved connectivity to empower people with information on the progress towards targets. This year would also mark the convening of an International SIDS Conference to be held from 1 to 4 September 2014 in Apia, Samoa, to be preceded by activities related to the conference from 28 to 30 August 2014, also in Apia, Samoa. It will focus the world s attention on a group of countries that remain a special case for sustainable development in view of their unique and particular vulnerabilities. Statistics is therefore a vital part of the development agenda but investment in statistics remains a challenge including in countries of CARICOM. Fundamentally, the Community is now engaged in the preparation of a Strategic Plan that is intended to focus on a few priority areas that can serve to build a resilient, secure, inclusive and smart Community that is people oriented. The HLF on statistics is therefore timely since the production of statistics is required to guide and inform the strategic interventions that emanate out of the Community strategic planning process. Given the vital role of statistics in informing national policy and decision making, in monitoring, evaluating and enabling the achievement of the CSME and international goals, harmonised development of the NSOs and NSS is required to make available statistics and indicators to guide the development strategies that are being pursued to empower the citizens of CARICOM. It is the above context of strategic development of the Region, monitoring development, 1 A New Global Partnership: Eradicate Poverty and Transform Economies through Sustainable Development- The Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda- 201, United Nations. 2

3 effecting policy response to treat with concerns and challenges of countries and the strengthening and integration of the National Statistical Systems that the forum is seeking to address. The HLF will be supported by International and Regional Development partners with key commitment being received from the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the Twenty First Century (PARIS21) the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). 2. OBJECTIVES 2.1 Overall Objective: The main objective of the forum is to enable high level commitment by governments of CARICOM to the strengthening of the national statistical systems as a key means of sustaining the development and availability of timely, high quality and relevant statistics for decisionmaking and the empowerment of citizens of CARICOM. Fundamentally it is envisaged that the availability of statistics will lead to good governance, accountability and improved standards of living of the peoples of the Community. 2.2 Specific Objectives: Specific Objectives will be to: place statistics at the centre of the development agenda that can lead to the availability of better statistics to support national and regional policy responses and to improve decision making; prepare the statistical systems at the national level for the monitoring of the Post 2015 global development goals; provide early warning signs on the economic, social and environmental challenges; facilitate the availability of relevant, timely and high quality statistics to inform the strategic direction of countries and of the Community; encourage countries of the Region to invest in and make use of the statistics produced enable the production of a CARICOM Strategy for the Development of Statistics (CSDS) that can promote implementation of the common Regional Statistical Work Programme at the country level; ensure coherence between the CSDS/RSWP and the work being put in place by countries that are developing National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) as well as at the sub regional level of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS); facilitate the identification and sharing of best practices and approaches that can lead to feasible action plans that countries are able to implement in the short/medium term and which will build a foundation to sustain the production and dissemination of statistics in the long term; 3

4 facilitate the leveraging of funds that are available from international development partners to boost national level funds to strengthen statistical capacity in countries. The proposed date of the High Level Forum is May 26 th and the Venue is St. Georges, Grenada. There will be other side meetings of interest to the development of Statistics including the following: Convening of a Census Symposium to explore lessons learnt, challenges in the 2010 Census Round and to commence planning for the 2020 Census Round 27 th May; Seminars on Multi dimensional Approach to Measuring Poverty and on the Estimation of Labour Force Statistics 28 th May; The First Meeting of the Caribbean Association of Professional Association (CAPS) 29 th May; The Fourteenth Meeting of the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics (AGS) 30 th May; The Conduct of an IT fair for Statistics with participation of private sector companies that can display IT products Software and Hardware for the support of the statistical production and dissemination. This activity will be held during the week of the meetings. 3. STATUS OF STATISTICS IN THE REGION 3.1 MAJOR CHALLENGES THAT IMPACT STATISTICS There are many challenges faced by the National Statistical Offices in CARICOM relative to the production and dissemination of statistics required by decision makers. These include the following: (i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) Small size of statistical offices relative to the workload /staff tenure issues; Limited human and financial resources, reflected in a lack of capacity that affect the quantity and quality of data that are produced and disseminated; Institutional weaknesses which lead to the inability to keep up with internationally recommended data requirements and standards; Inadequacies in the legal framework which affect the entire operations of the National Statistical Office (NSO) including its positioning as a central institution in the National Statistical System (NSS) to exhibit effective guidance of the NSS; technical independence in the performance of its work; lack of coordination in data sharing for the compilation of statistics across all producing agencies of the NSS; Inappropriate governance structure of the NSS which is fragmented, uncoordinated and unstructured and is unable to assimilate and utilise good practices, to ensure compliance of quality standards and to minimise duplication of efforts; The lack of Management and Leadership training to effectively treat with the demands and challenges facing the NSO and NSS in general, which require leadership that can exhibit flexibility and innovativeness in driving the change process required to improve the production of statistics; 4

5 (vii) Inadequate user orientation which affects the relevance of the statistics and the integrity of the systems of statistics produced. As a consequence of the above there are gaps in all of the key areas of statistics Economic, Social and Environment and major hurdles relative to the production of statistics in new and emerging areas such as statistics on International Trade in Service (details/characteristics) and Tourism Satellite Account; Information, Communication Technologies and the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA). On the other hand some key results have been achieved in some areas based on support provided by a number of International Development Partners and executed by the Regional Statistics Programme of the CARICOM Secretariat. These results include trained staff in a number areas, improved timeliness and coverage of statistics in specific areas; improvement in data availability in areas of statistics that were not routinely compiled over the last decade. These areas on which synergies can be built are addressed in the next section. 3.2 KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN STATISTICS IN CARICOM Key initiatives that that inform the development of Statistics: Institutional: Development of the common RSWP and the Resolution which received political support at the highest level of the Community Council of Ministers in 2005; In collaboration with PARIS21, conduct of regional training on National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) and commencement of work on National Strategies for the Development Statistics which was also supported by the EU; Updating of the RSWP of 2005 (EU/IDB) and the conduct of a Diagnostic Assessment of countries relative to its implementation (IDB); Production of a Model Statistics Bill to support the review/updating of legislation by countries (IDB); Assessment of the Statistical Systems of Haiti and the Dominican Republic were conducted and recommendations made for their improvement (EU); Development of formalised Attachment Programme to provide South South Cooperation ( Work in Progress); Development of a Code of Good Statistical Practices for CARICOM; Conduct of key statistical development fora Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians (SCCS) and the CARICOM Advisory Group on Statistics (AGS) including revision of Terms of Reference and Rules of Procedure of the Committee and Sub group; Launch of the Caribbean Association of Professional Statisticians (CAPS) 2 ; Initiation of work on a Quality Assurance Framework for statistics in CARICOM; 2 First Meeting of the CAPS is to be held in Grenada in the periphery of the Second High Level Forum. CAPS was launched in 2013 after a national/regional Logo and Motto competition interim Constitution and By Laws have been developed by the AGS 5

6 Census Support, Demographic, Social/Gender Statistics: Increased focus on Social/Gender including identification of core indicators including those of the MDGs in collaboration with a number of organisations such as the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); Development/Compilation of Caribbean Specific MDGs (CSMDG) Targets and Indicators: preparation by the Region of Caribbean Specific MDGs targets/indicators including a target with indicators on Early Childhood Education; targets/indicators on Secondary and Primary Education and on examinations passed in specific subjects; and target/indicators on non communicable diseases of relevance to the Region. This activity was supported by the CDB; Conduct of training workshops in Social/Gender Statistics including on the CSMDG Indicators supported by the EU; Development of a common Framework for the conduct of literacy (Inter American Development Bank IDB); Regional Census Strategy: Support was provided for the conduct and of the Census in countries and the analysis and dissemination of the Census Rounds. o For the 2000 Census Round the main support was for Census Data Analysis from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) including the production of analytical National Census Reports, Regional Special Topic Monographs, Volume of Basic Tables for each Country and a six week workshop in Demographic Analysis; o In the 2010 Census Round, support was received from the IDB under a regional public good project on Common Census Framework comprising three components on the development of a Common Census Questionnaire; Common Census Methodologies and Common Census Dissemination including consensus building workshops in these areas and support by the UNSD to CensusInfo dissemination software) training; o The 2010 Census Round also received support from the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland acting through the Department of International Development (DFID) which supported a Census e portal, Census Mapping, Census Data Processing and coordination and training; Training related to the Census Conduct and Analysis: Demographic Analysis Training including three seven week workshop, a two week refresher course and a Monitoring and Evaluation component was funded by the CDB; Census Data Processing: A Training Workshop was undertaken in Census Data Processing for the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Census; a training workshop Mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) training focusing on the use of satellite imagery; attendance at an international event in the field of Mapping and GIS software developers were funded for a cross section of member states; 6

7 Economic Statistics (More details are provided in Annex I): Work put in place to strengthen Economic Statistics including, Merchandise Trade Trade in Services, National Accounts, Tourism Satellite Account and Tourism Statistics, Creative Cultural Industries Statistics (Supported by the EU, IDB and the UNSD, World Trade Organisation, Un World Tourism Organisation, Caribbean Tourism Organisation, Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre, Statistics Canada and other partners); Environment Statistics: Development of Environment Statistics: Identification of Core Statistics, support to the compilation of Environment Statistics initiated by the UNSD and supported by the UNDP and the EU; Support to the area of Biodiversity in three countries; Regional training workshops in Environment Statistics (EU); Statistics on Information Communication Technologies: Training workshop in Information Communication Technologies (ICT) Statistics; Development of Caribbean Specific ICT (CSICT) Statistics and Indicators; Information Technology Frameworks/Infrastructure: Data management and submission: Support was provided by the EU to the development of a Data Management System in Member States and at the Secretariat; the framework was developed which also included the development of a rudimentary data policy; a data submission system was developed; equipment and software was provided to Member States and for the CARICOM Secretariat which compiles the data submitted, and training was conducted in data organisation as well as on the data submission framework; Data Warehousing Framework Development funded by the IDB; Support to the Development of DevInfo Dissemination Software (UNICEF/CDB); Advocacy: Advocacy: Commemoration of Caribbean Statistics Day for the period ; Commemoration of International Year of Statistics (Statistics2013); A High Level Forum on Statistics was also convened in 2009 to gain political support for the development of statistics with major recommendations which have been implemented including the establishment of a professional association of statisticians and the development of a statistical monitoring framework; Support for the production of Advocacy materials (PARIS21); 7

8 Training (n.e.s)/online knowledge base and other activities: Help Desk Facility: Support was provided for the development of an online Help Desk facility comprising links to knowledge based resources; a Discussion forum that was used in the development of the current proposal; a Question and Answer Facility and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). The last two facilities are not as yet fully operational; Management Training: a Three day workshop was held for Heads of Statistical Offices and other staff in Leadership and Management skills; Other training: Two week training in Sampling; training in the updated Classification Systems; Attachments: Provision of attachments across member states. Evidently, there is much to be gained in building on the above activities and results to advance the development of the national statistical systems. In addition to the above there are other international and regional organisations that support the development of statistics in the Region. Building on existing systems/frameworks, enabling implementation and transferring good practices will be an effective approach to the SUSDCC Program. A lot of work is needed to enable the NSS to produce the required data and there is a lot to lose by inaction, which has been a feature of the support to the development of statistics. 4. THE NSDS AND ITS ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF STATISTICS SHORT/IMMEDIATE IMPACT 4.1 OVERVIEW OF THE NSDS FRAMEWORK IN CARICOM 3 One of the core issues to be promoted during the High Level Forum will be the new NSDS guidelines that have been developed by PARIS21. An NSDS is a strategy for developing statistical capacity in the national statistical system (NSS) of a country. It provides a vision for where the NSS should be in five to ten years and sets milestones for the achievement of the vision. The NSDS comprises a comprehensive framework for assessing evolving user needs and for strengthening statistical capacity to meet the needs in a coordinated and efficient manners building on synergies that exist. The NSDS is a framework for the mobilizing of resources, national and from international development partners and is a basis for an effective and resultsoriented strategic management of the NSS. 3 Material is from PARIS21 documentation. 8

9 4.2 THE NSDS PROCESS IN CARICOM Engagement of PARIS21 and CARICOM Secretariat effectively commenced in 2009, when both organisations collaborated in the conduct of a Regional Training Workshop on the NSDS. The workshop which was also supported by the European Union under the Ninth European Development Fund (Ninth EDF), had as its main objective the provision of training in strategic planning to enable the repositioning and restructuring of the NSOs and National Statistical Systems (NSSs) to play a greater and more effective role in national development policy. Following this workshop through an EU funded project work was initiated across the Region. More substantive NSDS activities supported directly by PARIS 21 includedthe following countries: Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla, and Bermuda. PARIS21 also supported a stakeholders consultation in Jamaica relative to the development of the NSS in that country. In addition Dominica and Suriname produced NSDS strategies without PARIS21 support. Belize also received support for the development of its NSDS. PARIS21 is also supporting the NSDS preparation in Haiti and at the sub regional level at the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States Secretariat. The Sixth Regional Statistical Seminar which was held in St Kitts and Nevis in 2013 provided an opportunity for countries to reflect on the work put in place on the NSDS development and to initiate some next steps. At the sub regional level efforts were made to produce a sub regional development strategy in the OECS. Undoubtedly there are lessons learnt from the national level experiences that can inform the process going forward. A CARICOM Strategy for the Development of Statistics (CSDS) which was alluded to earlier is expected to be produced, establishing coherence with the sub regional and national strategies. The development of the CSDS will leverage the political support and commitment to the development of statistics in the region arising out of the High Level Forum and the key frameworks that already exist such as Core data sets, IT Data management, warehousing; Model Statistics Bill and the RSWP. 4.3 SHORT, MEDIUM AND LONG TERM OUTCOMES/IMPACT By the end of 2015, countries world over will collectively agree to the Post 2015 development agenda and would reach consensus on the goals for global development, on the statistics and on the indicators required for Monitoring and Evaluation of the goals. This process will therefore provide a context for the objectives/work programme for the regional/national statistical programme from 2016 onward. As Small Island Developing States CARICOM countries are characterized by small size/populations and are mainly denoted as being open and vulnerable to external shocks, susceptible to natural disasters and typified as having a narrow resource base with limited diversification in production. The SIDS face a number of challenges despite efforts to generate sustained economic growth rates that can lead to poverty, unemployment and debt reduction. 9

10 As a CARICOM Regional Statistical Work Programme has already been adopted, the short term regional objective is to ensure that the NSDSs will mainstream the production of the Common core of quality statistics into the NSDS implementation programmes. This would be best achieved by the end of 2015 so as to integrate also the Post 2015 global development demand for statistics and to enable the rollout and application of the data revolution, including the Big Data opportunities and the demand for greater openness of public data. The HLF will serve to enable an understanding by governments of the Region of the importance of an NSDS in the development and production of statistics and fundamentally provide the policy context and the need for statistics given the development challenges of CARICOM SIDS. Fundamentally, a key mechanism to be promoted during the Forum will be the development of the CARICOM Strategy for the Development of Statistics (CSDS) as an overarching framework guiding the development of statistics in the Region. The HLF will engage the Region in the global Data Revolution and will recommend mechanisms that can sustain statistical capacity given the challenges faced by SIDS. 5. CONCLUSION The Post 2015 Development Agenda, it is stated requires a Data Revolution which is fuelled by the opportunities presented by the advances in information technology over the last decade. Fundamentally statistics are required as inputs into policy formulation and the development of effective implementation strategies that can ultimately continue the thrust of the MDGs and enable success in eradicating poverty and in reducing unemployment among the neediest in the Region. The monitoring and evaluating of development outcomes depend on the availability of timely and relevant statistics and indicators. It is intended that the Data Revolution draw on data available from all sources including the Big data generated in the private sector and official statistics production of the National Statistical System with the commitment and support of the Governments of the Region. The Report of the High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post 2015 Development Agenda has expressed a vision to to end poverty in all its forms in the context of sustainable development and to have in place the building blocks of sustained prosperity for all, which is comparable to the ideas being suggested in the Strategic Plan that is being developed for CARICOM, suggesting the possibility of some level of synchronisation in the statistics required in the monitoring and evaluating framework for the global and regional development goals. The High Level Forum presents an opportunity for the region to commence preparation by ensuring that e a statistically sound measurement infrastructure is developed and sustained in CARICOM to produce high quality statistics to treat with the economic social and environmental challenges of countries of the Region building on the international momentum of the Post 2015 Development Agenda and the Data Revolution. 10

11 ANNEX I Further details on Economic Statistics Merchandise Trade: Provision of in country technical assistance and the conduct of training workshops including in collaboration with Eurostat in the updating of the trade data processing to the new Windows based Eurotrace software. While there are still challenges being experienced by countries in updating their trade databases into this new system, there are success stories and follow up work with countries; such that the Secretariat has been able to make use of South South co operation in efforts to assist those countries in need; training workshops in the Comext Module of the New Eurotrace to disseminate trade data, in the Trade Indices Module and in the Mirror Statistics for analysing trade data quality; National Accounts: Conduct of an Assessment on the status of National Accounts in 2009; commencement of the process of strengthening the data sources and providing training in National Accounts; preparation of an Action Plan for the improvement of this area of Statistics; sensitisation of the updated Systems of National Accounts 2008 (2008 SNA) with the UNSD/EC and Eurostat/EC; provision of training in National Accounts; Operation of a Technical Working Group to support the development of mechanism such as common questionnaires, manuals etc; preparation of an Implementation Strategy by stakeholders for the 2008 SNA; International Trade in Services: Provision of in country technical assistance; preparation of an Action Plan to guide the production of these statistics; conduct of a training workshop; preparation of common guidelines and a questionnaire to derive more detailed information; The International Comparison Programme (Joint execution by ECLAC and CARICOM Secretariat); 11