The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) facilitated two meetings at the Fort Young Hotel in Dominica, from 10th April, 2017 to 12th April, 2017. These meetings were the Sixth Technical and Ninth General Living Standards Measurement Committee (LSMC) meetings and the First Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) Steering Committee Meeting.
The Sixth Technical and Ninth General LSMC meetings were held from 10th April, 2017 to 11th April, 2017. The Anguilla Statistics Department will be working along with the Ministry of Social Development on the Country Poverty Assessment (CPA) in the conduct of the Survey of Living Conditions (SLC) component. The CPA assesses the current living conditions and main factors affecting the welfare of residents. It helps to reduce the extent and severity of poverty. The LSMC meetings were jointly organized by the OECS and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to:
1. Receive status of the main decisions tabled for action from the 5th Technical and 8th General LSMC meetings;
2. Share experiences and lessons learnt from implementing household surveys and for planning to implement the full CPA;
3. Receive from the OECS Project Coordinating Unit (PCU) status updates for the Enhance CPA Project;
4. Discuss and approve the Enhanced CPA Annual Work Programme and Budget 2016-2017;
5. Agree on the methodologies, instruments and criteria for the assessments of poverty and inequality according to international best practices;
6. Agree on modalities for data dissemination and sharing;
7. Agree on a revised term of reference for the LSMC.
The Anguilla Statistics Department recognizes the importance and need for quality statistics and the development of statistics. The Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) supports the OECS Economic Union’s development and integration agenda by formalizing, empowering, consolidating and promoting the Regional Statistical System (RSS) so that it can respond to the demand for relevant, high quality and Treaty-enabled data and official statistics.
The First RSDS Steering Committee meeting was held on 12th April, 2017, following the launch of the RSDS on 11th April, 2017. The meeting was jointly organized by the OECS and the World Bank. The purpose of this meeting was for the Committee to contemplate the Economic Affairs Council (EAC) endorsement as it discusses and deliberates its role to oversee the implementation of the RSDS.
Representatives from the OECS Member and Associate Member States were present at the meetings. Anguilla was represented at both of these meetings. Senior Statistical Officer Dilece Connor and Senior Social Worker Lauraine Gumbs represented Anguilla at the Sixth Technical and Ninth General LSMC meetings, and Senior Statistical Officer Dilece Connor represented Anguilla at the First RSDS Steering Committee meeting.