Information Management: OECS Commission Poised to Become Center of Excellence for the Region

Statistics Canada (StatCan) under the Project for the Advancement of Statistics in the Caribbean (PRASC) is helping to make the OECS Commission the Centre of Excellence for Information Management, to support the Commission’s and the OECS national statistical offices’ information management needs. 

PRASC will provide technical assistance, training and information management material and tools, to support efforts to create and sustain a culture of managing data, information and records as valuable organisational resources. 

Eight OECS staff members with primary responsibility for knowledge, information and records management are participating in the virtual training event. This team will serve as trainers for the Commission and the OECS national statistical offices.

A key area of importance for information management (IM) in the national statistical offices is the maintenance of metadata to document definitions, concepts, methodology, calculations and sources of data and statistics that are produced.

The virtual training will be conducted through seven modules over the period November 2019 to March 2020. This training is a follow-up to the three-day IM workshop that was held for the Commission in October 2016, where the PRASC shared best practices for processes, systems, and skills to capture, manage, preserve, store and deliver information within an organisation; and provided the Commission with tools and guidelines. 

At the end of the training sessions, the Commission will be equipped with a cadre of persons who can ensure information is available at the right time, in the right place, for the right people and in the right format.