OECS Member States approve the new draft OECS Regional strategy for the development of Statistics (RSDS)
OECS Member States have approved the new draft OECS Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) at a regional meeting of stakeholders in Barbados on the 17th and 18th October 2016.
The OECS RSDS is a 14-year master plan to support the production and dissemination of economic, business, social, demographic, environment and energy statistics for use in national development planning and to monitor both progress toward full integration of the OECS Economic Union and measure attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The RSDS fulfils the need for both the availability and access to comparable statistics as stated in the Revised Treaty of Basseterre.
The RSDS accommodates national development plans, OECS sector strategies such as the Education Strategy, Tourism Policy and aligns with the CARICIOM Action Plan for Statistics, the CARICOM Regional Statistics Work Programme; and global initiatives such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the SIDS Accelerated Modalities for Action (SAMOA) Pathway and several other thematic areas such as youth, persons with disabilities, child protection, and women.
The OECS RSDS 2017 to 2030 is expected to be endorsed by OECS Economic Affairs Council later this year.
Participants at the meeting included Member States’ national statistics offices and policy units; institutional partners ECCB and UWI, and development partners such as ILO, UNWOMEN, UNICEF, UNDP, World Bank, FAO, UNFPA and PARIS21.
The development of the OECS RSDS was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID). Project management responsibility is assigned to The World Bank with implementation support provided by the UNDP and The World Bank.
