Hosted at ECLAC Caribbean’s headquarters on 24 August 2015, an expert group meeting will bring together representatives from the National Statistical Offices of the Caribbean region as well as other experts in information and communications technology to discuss Big data, its implications and uses.…
Introduction Much has been written on the difficulty of obtaining statistical data on the Caribbean. Many commentators have examined the problem from several angles, including the organization of the statistical offices, the issue of training and the issue of budgetary resources that impose an upper limit to the size of staff that can be employed at the statistical office. While there is much to say about any of the issues given as examples of the facets of the problem, in the final analysis the management of limited statistical resources is at the core of the data poverty. Th…
Among Caribbean statistical offices, there is widespread awareness of the issue of statistical confidentiality which has often led to quite strong restrictions on the availability of detailed and disaggregated census tables. In North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, statistical offices use disclosure control methods, particularly methods involving some form of data perturbation, to safely publish detailed and disaggregated census tables. These methods are not used in the Caribbean (or Latin America) but could safely facilitate the release of much more detailed census tables than has…
Statisticians from the statistical offices of over twenty Caribbean countries and overseas territories will soon be equipped with increased capacity in census planning, management and implementation. A four-day workshop organised by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in collaboration with the Secretariat for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), will take place in Kingston, Jamaica, from 8 to 11 April 2019. Caribbean statistical offices will be carrying out population and housing censuses between 2020 and 2022…
The overall objective of this regional workshop is to train staff from the statistical offices of Jamaica and Belize in the use of REDATAM for the development of web applications for online dissemination of census and survey microdata. With follow-up support from ECLAC to be provided as necessary, the two statistical offices will then use REDATAM for online dissemination of their 2022 census data.…
Information generated from mobile phones can be successfully used to contain the spread of non-communicable diseases, as was recently done to stem the spread of the Chikungunya virus in the Caribbean. This opportunity was explained in the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) recently published report titled “An assessment of big data for official statistics in the Caribbean”. The report notes that the use of big data through geospatial (or location) information was used to support healthcare, and to design social intervention measures to address …
The data revolution for sustainable development has heralded a renewed focus on evidence-based policymaking in policy planning and implementation, but the legal foundation for the production of official statistics to inform these processes has lagged among most Caribbean countries. By incorporating and supporting the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (UNFPOS) in national statistical legislation, Caribbean countries will improve the quality of and timeliness in the dissemination of official statistics. This can be achieved by revising current statistical laws or crea…
Statistical organizations of the Caribbean countries continue to face serious challenges posed by the increased demand for more relevant, accurate and timely statistical data. Tangible progress has been made in delivering key products in the area of economic statistics. The central banks of the subregion have assisted greatly in this respect. However, even in this branch of statistics there are still several glaring gaps. The situation is even worse in other areas of statistics including social and environmental statistics. Even though all countries of the subregion have committed to the Mille…
Authorities from the national statistical offices of Latin America and the Caribbean recognized today the role of official statistics in the development of public policies for mitigating the effects of the health emergency prompted by the coronavirus (COVID-19) and in the post-pandemic economic reactivation, on the final day of the Nineteenth Meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). The gathering, which was inaugurated on Tuesday, August 25, drew the participation of 39 delegations f…
In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, ECLAC is preparing a series of short publications with relevant policy recommendations. A number of recommendations are made in this note on gathering labour market information through household surveys, paying particular attention to the sample designs required for this purpose.…
Representatives of National Statistical Offices stressed the need to have sustainable access to data held by the private sector for the production of official statistics, during the Twelfth Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), which is taking place through Thursday, September 28 at the United Nations regional organization’s main headquarters in Santiago, Chile. The Statement on the use of data held by the private sector for the purposes of official statistics warns about the increased challenges associated…
Working group on Peer review mechanism in Latin America and the Caribbean of the Statistical Conference of the Americas.…
Authorities from Latin America and the Caribbean discussed progress today on the use of artificial intelligence in the official statistics of the region’s countries, at the twenty-fourth meeting of the Executive Committee of the Statistical Conference of the Americas of ECLAC, which is taking place virtually through Wednesday, April 30. Participating in this event are representatives of national statistics offices from the region, regional and international organizations, and United Nations agencies, funds and programs, among other stakeholders. The meeting was inaugurated by José Manuel …
Official statistics are an indispensable public good for the proper functioning of societies and democracy, according to the representatives of Latin American and Caribbean countries gathered at the Twelfth Meeting of the Statistical Conference of the Americas, which is taking place through Thursday, September 28 at the main headquarters of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile. Starting today, the intergovernmental meeting – which is the main forum for discussing the development of statistics in the region – has convened authorities from Nation…
Co-organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD). With the support of CARICOM and Eurostat.…
With the aim of promoting collaborative policies for the development of projects in statistics, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and Colombia's National Statistics Department (Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística, DANE) today signed a Framework Agreement for Collaboration to foster exchange of technical support and greater efficiency in conducting their respective objectives. The agreement was signed at ECLAC headquarters by the Executive Secretary of this regional UN commission, José Luís Machinea, and DANE Director&nb…
The United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics (UNFPOS) are considered the basic framework that National Statistical Systems (NSS) must observe in order to produce high quality, independent statistics that support informed decision-making and public confidence in government. The UNFPOS were first adopted in 1994 by the United Nations Statistical Commission. These principles were subsequently endorsed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in 2013 and the United Nations General Assembly in 2014. Statistical laws in the Caribbean have lagged in incorporating…
The data revolution for sustainable development has triggered interest in the use of big data for official statistics such that theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council considers it to be almost an obligation for statistical organizations to explore big data. Big data has been promoted as a more timely and cheaper alternative to traditional sources of official data, and one that offers great potential for monitoring the sustainable development goals. However, privacy concerns, technology and capacity remain significant obstacles to the use of big data. This study makes a case for incor…