Basseterre, St. Kitts, October 10, 2019 (SKNIS): Officers representing the Departments of Statistics in both Nevis and St. Kitts, as well as media representatives, will be better equipped to effectively execute their duties as it relates to data collection, evaluation and dissemination in the Federation, thanks to a capacity-building workshop.
The four-day (October 08-11) Statistics Communication and Advocacy Workshop is currently taking place at the National ICT Centre in St. Kitts.
Carlton Phipps, Director of Department of Statistics in St. Kitts, welcomed the participants and noted that the event is timely and of significant importance.
“I think it is a very important workshop. This workshop starts our activities geared towards the 2021 Census,” said Mr. Phipps. “As a part of getting the cooperation of households so that we have good results, we must develop a proper communication strategy,” he added, noting that the tools and skills acquired during the workshop would assist not only getting the cooperation of citizens, but also in policy planning and decision-making.
Loverly Anthony, Statistical Development Officer at the OECS Commission and Workshop Facilitator, shared similar sentiments. She said that the workshop is indeed vital because several aspects of statistics would be discussed.
She used the occasion to highlight the importance of statisticians.
“The stats offices play some very important roles, and we do a lot of work. Data collection is not an easy task, but a lot of persons in the country do not know about what we do. Some of them might know about the Census, but they don’t see the alignment between the work that the Central Statistical Office (CSO) does and the Census,” she said. “And so, communication and advocacy is all about putting the CSO out there, branding the CSO, and also branding the work that we do as statisticians and looking at how we can encourage the younger ones coming up so that we can continue to have statisticians in our countries to do the work that we need them to do,” she added.
This initiative forms part of a week-long celebration for the observance of Caribbean Statistics Day slated for Tuesday, October 15. The theme is “Building Resilience of the Caribbean Community”.
The workshop is organized by the Department of Statistics in collaboration with the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission.
