Caribbean region suffering from lack of social data

An official of one of the United Nations agencies has expressed concern about the dearth of social data in the Caribbean region.

UNICEF’s Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Khin-Sandi Lwin, made the point on Wednesday morning while addressing those gathered for the opening of the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), Data Analysis Workshop in the conference room of the Baobab Towers.

“We need to make sure that the data we have is really something that makes sense, is comparable with what you may have already collected through the administrative system, and ultimately comparable with other countries that are doing the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey. Needless to say we are in this with you, because social data is very, very limited in the Caribbean,” she said.

The UNICEF Representative noted that while a considerable amount of emphasis is placed on economic data, such that information is available on for example on the status of the economy and poverty levels, they remain in the dark about what is happening in respect of such things as child development, maternal and reproductive health, child health, water and sanitation, HIV/AIDS, sexual behaviour, orphans, literacy and education and nutrition.

Most critically, she said, they do not know what is happening in terms of child protection.

“[It is] the front that is most hidden under the table – issues of child abuse. These are things we are dealing with on a daily basis with partners such as the Child Care Board, but we really don’t know what the true situation is. We don’t have the statistics to say that this is something that needs policy attention or programmatic attention. So your work in the next few days is really to highlight what is critical, what stands out as something that needs to be addressed and what is something that may not sound right, that alerts those who need to dig more,” she said.

With that in mind, the UNICEF official added that her office is happy that they have reached this stage in Barbados and hope that in a few months, the Barbados Statistical Service (BSS) will be able to make a presentation to Cabinet on the status of children and women in this country. Once the data is completed, she said, it can be compared to information from throughout the region so that it can be determined where Barbados stands vis-a-via the other countries in the region.

“This is something that is critical for our work and yours and we are very happy to have partnered very closely with the BSS in this process... We are with you beyond the data presentation, dissemination, analysis and right into action,” she said. (JRT)