Basseterre, St. Kitts, May 02, 2018 (SKNIS): Officials from the Department of Statistics in St. Kitts and Nevis are encouraging households, once selected, to give their full support and actively participate in the Survey of Living Conditions/Household Budgetary Survey, a component of the Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) survey, which will run from May until December 2018.
The survey is a very important component of the CPA as it measures levels of poverty by using a multidimensional approach. The data to be gathered include education, health, living conditions and employment. It will give indicators of multidimensional progress, as well as look at the economic environment within St. Kitts and Nevis.
Carlton Phipps, Acting Director in the Department of Statistics in St. Kitts, said that the information collected from households will remain strictly confidential. He assured the general public that persons going out into the field would be trained to conduct the surveys.
“As part of the training process, enumerators and supervisors will be trained in having proper understanding of the questionnaire that they will be administering. The other aspects relate to the conducting of interviews, being professional in meeting the households, ensuring them that things are done properly and honestly,” said the Acting Director, while explaining the importance of the data collected. “This information is very critical as it assesses the level of poverty, and also for use in measuring some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators. These would be used going forward in terms of developing policies and plans.”
Gaile Gray-Phillip, Senior Director of Statistics in the Ministry of Sustainable Development, made a clarion call for selected households to participate, as the role of persons responding to the questionnaire is very critical to the success of the project.
“Without their participation and willingness to give us truthful information we will not have reliable information in order to make informed decisions so we solicit their participation and we look forward to their coming on board with us on this project,” said the senior director.
Edwin St Catherine, Director of Statistics in St Lucia, and Tanida Arayavechkit, Economist for St. Kitts and Nevis, Caribbean Country Management Unit, World Bank, are on island to facilitate the training of the supervisors and enumerators in St Kitts, which will run from May 01-04.
