Background

The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) subregional headquarters for the Caribbean is currently implementing a Development Account (DA) project titled “Strengthened capacity to design and implement policies to enhance resilience in Caribbean SIDS.” Under the 16th tranche of the Development Account, the objective of this DA16 project is to strengthen national capacities of Caribbean countries to design and implement policies and strategies for accelerating the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and building resilient economies. Six Caribbean countries, namely, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Suriname will benefit from the project, which is expected to enhance the technical skills of decision-makers of the target countries in the development of policies and projects to promote sustainable development and build resilience to shocks while strengthening national institutional capacity to facilitate greater synergy in the implementation of the SDGs and the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States (ABAS).

The midterm review of progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a sobering account of the slow pace of achievement of the SDGs. The COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts have negatively affected progress on SDG targets related to poverty, hunger, and climate action, while earlier gains recorded in promoting health and wellbeing, advancing quality education, and reducing inequalities are seriously threatened, if not reversed.1 More recently, higher tariff regime being pursued by the new United States administration is disrupting global financial markets and has introduced new uncertainties for global trade that could constitute barriers to trade in goods and services for Caribbean SIDS. These events have severe implications for foreign exchange reserves of nations. Furthermore, global crises and their impacts exacerbate the subregion’s existing vulnerabilities, which include susceptibility to the impacts of climate change, exposure to natural hazards and disasters, increasingly unsustainable public debt, and limited technical and institutional capacity to effectively manage development challenges.
Considering the global environment in which Caribbean SIDS operate and noting that the timeline for the 2030 Agenda is now just five years away, there is an urgency to accelerate action in implementing the SDGs. This will require strengthening national and subnational capacity, accountability, and public institutions to deliver accelerated progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. In its call to action for the transformation required to fully achieve the global Goals and their targets in the remaining years of the 2030 Agenda, the Global Sustainable Development Report 2023 underscores the need for capacity building at individual, institutional and network levels.2 Capacity development is also prominently emphasized across thematic areas in ABAS, the Outcome Document of the Fourth International Conference on SIDS.

Due to the human capital limitations that Caribbean countries face, there have been notable implementation gaps relating to sustainable development initiatives in sectors critical to resilience building. Therefore, capacity strengthening at institutional and individual levels is crucial for resilience building in the Caribbean. Of particularly importance is the consistency with which Caribbean countries acknowledge in their Voluntary National Review (VNR) reports presented to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development their need for capacity strengthening. Furthermore, countries have also acknowledged significant data gaps in their VNRs, an outcome that ECLAC has attributed, in part, to low statistical literacy in the public sector. Therefore, the current DA16 project is designed to respond to the institutional capacity needs of Caribbean member States, including capacity strengthening in data-informed policy formulation and implementation through the provision of training in statistical analysis and cost-benefit analysis.

To this end, and in fulfilment of OP1.2 of the DA16 project, ECLAC is organising capacity-building workshops in Grenada for policy makers and technical officers of the Government of Grenada during 5-14 May 2025.

 

Rationale

Grenada has identified limited statistical capacities as a major barrier to the implementation of, and reporting on, the SDGs. In its first VNR presented in 2022, the country identified the need to develop a proper Monitoring and Evaluation system to generate, record and analyse data, as well as the need for increased technical expertise in areas such as project identification, development, management, and implementation as critical in advancing the 2030 Agenda.

Notably, the Government has committed to enhancing the statistical literacy of its public sector staff as a means of accelerating the implementation of the SDGs. This has assumed a significantly higher importance with the country’s post-disaster experience after the passing of Hurricane Beryl on 1 July 2024. In the conduct of the Post Disaster Needs Assessment, there was a significant gap in the types of data needed to inform recovery and reconstruction, especially relating to official statistics for estimating the value of loss and damage caused by the hurricane. Relatedly, in the post-disaster reconstruction phase, the costs and benefits of reconstruction options as well as investments in resilience must be appropriately considered to ensure that the government and households are making cost-effective decisions now for greater benefits and higher savings in the future.

Although, decision-makers and senior technical officers are not expected to be experts in statistics or economics, gaining some basic understanding of statistical analysis and cost-benefit analysis will improve their decision-making ability, as the knowledge gained on these topics will enable them to “ask the right questions” and competently interpret and understand statistical and economic ratios presented to them in briefs and study reports. Furthermore, technical officers across the public sector are not uniform in their background knowledge of or expertise in statistics and economics. However, statistical and economic literacy, especially in data and cost-benefit analyses is critical in enhancing their functionality. Based on lessons learned in a previous DA12 project in Grenada, there is benefit in peer-learning when technical officers from different backgrounds participate in technical training workshops such as the ones being proposed.

Schedule

5 May 2025: Training in Introductory Statistics

Morning session

Module 1: Introduction to Statistics and Statistical Terminologies

Afternoon session

Module 2: Data Sources

Module 3: Data Presentation 6 May 2025: Official Launch of DA16 project and Masterclass/Training in Introductory Statistics

6 May 2025: Official Launch of DA16 project and Masterclass/Training in Introductory Statistics

Morning session

Official Launch of DA16 project in Grenada with High-level Government Officials Module 4: Descriptive Statistics

Afternoon session

Masterclass in Data and Statistics for Decision Making

7 May 2025: Training in Introductory Statistics

Morning session

Module 5: Data Disaggregation

Module 6: Data Imputation

Afternoon session

Module 7: Survey Design
 

8 May 2025: Training in Introductory Statistics

Morning session

Module 8: Trend Analysis

Module 9: Regression Analysis

Afternoon session

Module 10: Inferential Statistics
 

8 May 2025: Seminar in Data and Statistics for Decision-Making

Morning session

• The National Statistical System in Grenada
• Interactive session on data literacy
• Open Discussion on Importance of data in ensuring that no one is left behind