Statistical Institute of Belize and Inter-American Development Bank sponsor workshop to enhance the National Statistical System
The Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) recently conducted a workshop to apply the ‘Tool for Assessing Statistical Capacity’ (TASC), a self-assessment exercise, to identify strengths and weaknesses of and determine the requirements for the development of Belize’s National Statistical System. Participants included SIB staff, and officials from 20 agencies that collect and use national statistics, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Belize Tourism Board, Central Bank of Belize, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Fisheries Department, Belize City and Belmopan City Councils, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Immigration, Directorate of Foreign Trade, the Customs and Excise Department, and private sector participants.
The SIB, Belize’s lead agency in the production and dissemination of statistical information, continues to work to develop and improve the country’s production of reliable statistics provided by censuses, sample surveys, and administrative records. The TASC, designed by the IDB in collaboration with the United States Census Bureau, to provide detailed diagnoses of the specific strengths and weaknesses of national statistical production and has been applied across the region.
The exercise highlighted that Belize performs comparatively well, in procedures for field operations and systems for data dissemination and moderately in questionnaire design and evaluation and planning and management of censuses and surveys. Areas which require particular attention include documentation, sampling and data analysis and evaluation.
The workshop was the first phase of a three-part program funded by the IDB to support the SIB’s work to strengthen the National Statistical System. Its findings will be used for the design of the second phase of the program – a series of workshops over the next nine months to bring together all the relevant agencies to design and implement an appropriate, strongly coordinated and sustainable National Statistical System. In the third phase, the IDB will be working with both the SIB and the University of Belize to put in place training and education programs in statistics to meet the needs of the country’s National Statistics System in the future – and by doing so, provide the information required for the effective implementation of Belize’s Growth and Sustainable Development Strategy.
