CASTRIES, St. Lucia – The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission has officially launched the OECS Regional Data Governance Council (RDGC), a component of the World Bank-funded OECS Data for Decision Making project, which was approved in May 2022.
OECS Director General, Dr. Didacus Jules“The OECS Regional Data Governance Council is designed to be the beacon that guides our collective journey in managing and utilising data across our region,” said OECS Director General, Dr. Didacus Jules, noting that Jules noted that the RDGC will play a vital role in ensuring that the OECS and its member states have access to high-quality, timely, and reliable data to inform decision-making and support the region’s development.
“The Revised Treaty of Basseterre mandating the establishment of the Economic Union speaks to several imperatives that presuppose and require the standardisation, systematic collection, effective management and intelligent utilisation of data,” he added.
The RDGC aims to improve the capacity of the participating Eastern Caribbean countries namely Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines to produce and publicly disseminate statistical data for country and OECS regional level analytics.
The Commission said that it will do this by strengthening both national and regional level capacities.
It said the RDGC will aim to stimulate innovations suitable for the small island states in the Eastern Caribbean, increase the provision of technical assistance and regional training, and support regional analytical products and dissemination.
This will also contribute to the implementation of the OECS Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) 2017-2030.
Senior Economist at the World Bank and World Bank lead on the DDM project, Roy Katayama, in congratulating the OECS on the achievement of this milestone, noted that the RDGC is a significant step towards improving data governance and strengthening the statistical system in the OECS region.
“The establishment of this Regional Data Governance Council signifies your collective commitment to ensuring integrity. The harmonisation of statistical data is a major step in building a stronger regional statistical system with solid foundations for data production. management. dissemination, and protection. The potential benefits of better regional data are enormous,” he added.
Since its launch, members of the Council met here to establish the short and medium terms plans for the RDGC.
At this inaugural meeting, Director of Statistics in Grenada, Kenita Paul was elected to serve as Chair of the RDGC. She will be responsible for steering the direction of the council as she leads in the formulation of the work programme for this year.
Among the immediate actions outlined by the Council was the need to focus on data quality assessment measures and documentation of lessons learned in census implementation.
