Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh says government has invested over US$4.5M to boost capacity in the Bureau of Statistics as it sees this agency’s work as key to effective governance.
He made the statement in his message on World Statistics Day.
According to a press release, on July 14, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had written to President Bharrat Jagdeo and other heads of government worldwide to bring to their attention General Assembly Resolution 64/267 in which the Assembly had decided to designate October 20 as World Statistics Day. Observances were held under the general theme of ‘Celebrating the many achievements of official statistics and the core values of service, integrity and professionalism.’
The General Assembly further invited member states, organizations of the United Nations System and other international and regional organizations as well as civil society to observe World Statistics Day.
Dr Singh noted that the activities mounted by the Bureau of Statistics and other statistical units of government are a clear manifestation of the administration’s continuous policy support to the area of statistics and a further deepening of that commitment in a clear and ready response to the invitation of the UN General Assembly.
“I have noted the Secretary-General’s expressions of extreme satisfaction with the efforts made in many countries in recent years to strengthen their statistical capacity under the leadership of the national statistical office and in particular in such areas as the population and housing censuses and the monitoring of the progress of the MDGs,” Dr Singh said, adding that Guyana can certainly associate with these comments.
He said that government has not only been unstinting in its support for Statistics but has manifested this commitment in very tangible ways.
During the period 2005 to 2009, government, with the support of key development partners, invested over US$4.5 million in building capacity in the Bureau and establishing and strengthening statistical units in several of the social sector line ministries. “Capacity building in Statistics is a long-term commitment and Government’s support for statistics is unequivocal and for the long term,” he said, adding that the country has already begun to see results from the investments.
The minister said the new series of Guyana’s National Accounts and Consumer Price Index which were introduced in January, based on the results of Household Budget Survey conducted in 2006, constituted a monumental piece of work by the staff at the Bureau. “For these major achievements, I heartily congratulate the Bureau,” he added.
This first World Statistics Day, and the second Caribbean Statistics Day celebrated just a few days ago on October 15, fall within the year which marks the census year for several Caricom countries. In giving due recognition to the work and achievements of official statistics through the celebration of a World Statistics Day, the Director of the United Nations Statistics Division observed that a key source of official statistics is the population and housing census which provides governments and the public with valuable data on the size, structure and characteristics of their population. As of October 1, 106 countries and areas had conducted a census in the 2010 round with another 117 scheduled to so do.
Guyana as one of the founder members of the Caribbean Community has been unswerving in it support for the organizations and instruments that give meaning to a Caribbean Community. Among these are the Standing Committee of Caribbean Statisticians and the decennial Population and Housing Censuses conducted under the coordinated role of the Caricom Secretariat. “I am aware that the Standing Committee will be convening in just three (3) weeks’ time and Guyana through the Bureau of Statistics will be fully involved at that meeting in charting and managing the course of regional statistics over the next calendar year,” Dr Singh said. He also noted that several Caricom countries have proceeded with their national censuses this year, with others scheduled to so do during 2011.
In keeping with the ten-year cycle, and with the last local census having been held in 2002, Guyana will be conducting its next national census in 2012. This decision reaffirms government’s unwavering commitment to the regional census process given the plethora of information that it will provide and that is needed for the region to firmly establish the process of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.
“No Government in today’s world can function effectively without access to the quality of statistics that the practitioners in the official statistics system strive on a daily basis to produce,” the minister said. He noted that in many instances and not only in Guyana, this is met with criticisms and sometimes skepticism. Dr Singh posited that critics often lose sight of the fact that a statistical system is both a user as well a producer of statistics. “It is first a user before it can produce and if it were physically possible to do a check in several cases avid critics may well turn out to be among the most recalcitrant in the submission of data as required by law,” he said.
In fact, in his message to mark Caribbean Statistics day last Friday, Caribbean Community Secretary-General Edwin Carrington noted inter alia that as a downside to the work of the national statistical offices, “‘these offices faced as they are with an increasing demand for data are experiencing high non-response rates from data providers.’” Thus it is really a most commendable gesture by the UN General Assembly to give to the statistical systems worldwide and the staffers who work within these systems the type of recognition that is long overdue by the observance of ‘World Statistics Day’ which today and henceforth will be observed on the October 20 each year; taking its place alongside other important observances of the United Nations such as ‘World Food Day’, ‘World Health Day’, ‘World Teachers’ Day’ and ‘World AIDS Day’, to name a few.
