Development Account: 6th Tranche

1. Development Account: 6th Tranche Strengthening the capacity of National Statistical Offices (NSOs) in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States to fulfill the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other Internationally Agreed Development Goals (IADGs)

2. BACKGROUND • It has long been recognized that there is need for building and strengthening institutional capabilities for generating and compiling reliable social and economic statistics in the Caribbean • States of the region face additional difficulties resulting from the supplementary demands created by the MDGs and other global commitments

3. BACKGROUNDcont’d • In addition, other issues facing the region include: • the absence of a standardized format for data collection and comparison • the absence of comprehensive harmonized regional indicators for monitoring and measuring each Millennium Development Goal

4. OBJECTIVES • The project aims to: • address problems such as the lack of micro and metadata • take full advantage of existing programmes while avoiding duplication with ongoing activities relating to MDGs undertaken by other regional bodies • produce a higher level of coordination of statistical work across the region in social, economic and environmental issues

5. EXPECTED OUTCOMES • The knowledge of policy makers, researchers and the public of the subregion will be increased in the area of sustainable development and integration in the context of the Caribbean Basin • Human resource capacity and technical expertise will be improved for economic and social policymaking in the Caribbean

6. EXPECTED OUTCOMES cont’d • Caribbean countries will adopt common data collection protocols, definitions and classifications for the collection and dissemination of an extended set of MDGs indicators • Technical capacity of governmental institutions will be strengthened to produce and analyze MDGs indicators • The capacity of the NSOs of participating countries will be improved to collect, compile, analyze, and disseminate data on social and environmental indicators

7. EXPECTED OUTCOMES cont’d • A database will be established which makes it possible to: • draw up indicators at the subregional level in order to measure the economic, social and environmental costs of maintaining current development patterns • evaluate and diagnose the current state of the environment in the region • gauge the environmental consequences of existing macroeconomic policies • supply orientation for policy decisions, especially in regard to public and private investment

8. ACTIVITIES Specific project activities include: • Data collection, analysis and harmonization • This activity would provide the inputs needed for increasing the number of countries that regularly collect statistics on the MDGs and IADGs • Statistical capacity-building • Expert group meetings • Training workshops

9. ACTIVITIEScont’d • Publication • This report will include analyses of the comparable data in selected countries of the Caribbean presented in country reports • Knowledge Management • The knowledge management tool for this specific project will be set up in such a way that it acts as a single repository (or portal) of all information related to the project and the processes (administrative, substantive) that it entails

10. STRATEGIES • The project will be executed by the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean and the Statistics and Economic Projections Division in Santiago • Specific project activities in participating countries will be jointly determined by the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean and the relevant NSOs in each country • A Steering Committee will be set up to lead and monitor project implementation

11. STRATEGIEScont’d • The project will include a preparatory phase during the first three months of the project period to ensure effective implementation • The project will require coordination of work – especially through internal consultations, with and between the Statistics and Economic Projections Division and other substantive divisions in Santiago

12. MONITORING & EVALUATION • ECLAC, through its Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean, will maintain regular follow-up contact with DESA/UNSD, CARICOM and the ECLAC Statistics and Economic Projections Division to monitor ongoing project activities according to the established project timeline

13. MONITORING & EVALUATION cont’d According to the type of project activity specific information will be collected for project evaluation through: • Workshop/EGM evaluation questionnaires which will be used for assessing the impact of the advocacy/training workshops and expert group meetings (EGM) • Survey of national statistical activities and publications will be carried out to determine the impact of the activities in data collection, dissemination and use

14. MONITORING & EVALUATION cont’d • Website access log will be used to evaluate the usefulness and extent of outreach of the knowledge management tool • An overall substantive project evaluation is set to take place at the end of the project period. An amount of US$10,000 of international consultant fee is allocated for this purpose.

15. CONCLUSION • The Monitoring and Evaluation of the project will show the results which would indicate the level of achievements in closing the gaps in social statistics • It is certainly not expected that the project will meet and address all the challenges

16. CONCLUSIONcont’d • We will however be in a better position to assess the further needs in bridging these gaps in data collection at the end of the project • We can therefore revise strategies to continue to address or meet these goals

17. THE END