Sean Mathurin, Programme Officer at the OECS Economic Division says a recent meeting supported by UNICEF considered the report of a consultant who conducted a technical assessment of existing surveys and others that may be of interest to the Eastern Caribbean Region.
The meeting also discussed the main findings and recommendations of the assessment, and proposed the further actions required to achieve better alignment in the approaches to and execution of social surveys, including areas of survey planning, questionnaire design, sampling, training, fieldwork, data processing, data analysis and dissemination. To this end Mathurin adds that based on the recommendations from the meeting, plans are ongoing to launch a pilot programme to help inform the most appropriate Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey for the Eastern Caribbean: “Among the recommendations was that the MICS be piloted in Saint Lucia and Barbados. The intention is that during the pilot phase, participants from other Member States involved in the MICS programme be invited to experience first hand what those countries are doing with regards to the piloting of the MICS.”
With a harmonized common census questionnaire for OECS Member States among the plans, the meeting also systematically reviewed the core questions developed by CARICOM, considered the inclusion of additional questions proposed by OECS Member States and worked on a list of questions which would best facilitate and complement ongoing integration initiatives.
The OECS Secretariat expects social survey harmonization to enhance the availability of up-to-date, high quality, disaggregated and comparable social data, for the use of policy and decision-makers and other stakeholders in planning for the fulfillment of the rights of children, women and their families. This is in keeping with the core focus of UNICEF, the main sponsor of the meeting which was held on July 28th in Barbados.
Media Contact Raymond O’Keiffe Email: rokeiffe@oecs.org Tel. 1-758- 455-6305 or 455-OECS