A World Bank del­e­ga­tion is to hold talks with of­fi­cials from the from the St. Lu­cia gov­ern­ment and the Or­gan­i­sa­tion of East­ern Caribbean States (OECS) on eval­u­at­ing and en­hanc­ing na­tion­al da­ta sys­tems.

The del­e­ga­tion, will over the next four days start­ing on Thurs­day, dis­cuss the OECS Da­ta for De­ci­sion Mak­ing (DDM) project, as­sess­ing its progress as well as fi­nal­is­ing the an­nu­al work plan for up­com­ing ini­tia­tives.

“The OECS Da­ta for De­ci­sion Mak­ing Project is a cor­ner­stone of our com­mit­ment to em­pow­er­ing the coun­tries of the Caribbean with the tools and sys­tems they need to make in­formed, ev­i­dence-based de­ci­sions,” said World Bank se­nior econ­o­mist and the mis­sion’s team leader, Ann Luisa Paffhausen.

“This mis­sion is not just about eval­u­at­ing progress but about strength­en­ing our part­ner­ships, re­fin­ing strate­gies, and en­sur­ing that the da­ta be­comes a trans­for­ma­tive force for sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment. The World Bank is proud to sup­port these ef­forts, which will have long-last­ing ben­e­fits for the peo­ple of the OECS,”  she added.

Deputy Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary in the De­part­ment of Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment, Bar­bara Ann Fran­cis-Au­gustin, said this mis­sion un­der­scores the coun­try’s ded­i­ca­tion to us­ing da­ta as a strate­gic tool for na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment.

“By col­lab­o­rat­ing with the OECS and the World Bank, we are tak­ing sig­nif­i­cant steps to strength­en our de­ci­sion-mak­ing process­es and align our ac­tiv­i­ties with the needs of our peo­ple. This part­ner­ship en­sures that St. Lu­cia con­tin­ues to build a strong foun­da­tion in ev­i­dence-based poli­cies and sus­tain­able growth.”

A state­ment said that tech­ni­cal ses­sions will ad­dress the Agri­cul­tur­al Cen­sus and the Sur­vey of Liv­ing Con­di­tions House­hold Bud­get Sur­vey method­ol­o­gy, fi­nan­cial man­age­ment process­es, and up­dates to pro­cure­ment strate­gies.

It said these col­lab­o­ra­tive ac­tiv­i­ties will ad­dress chal­lenges, re­fine method­olo­gies, and so­lid­i­fy ac­tion plans for the up­com­ing year.

“The out­comes of this mis­sion will be piv­otal in strength­en­ing St. Lu­cia’s ca­pac­i­ty to use da­ta as a dri­ving force for de­ci­sion-mak­ing, ul­ti­mate­ly ben­e­fit­ing its cit­i­zens and align­ing with sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment goals,” the state­ment added.

The DDM project was launched in 2022 and will be im­ple­ment­ed over a five-year pe­ri­od and  seeks to pro­duce qual­i­ty da­ta to in­form pol­i­cy de­ci­sions.

The Re­gion­al Da­ta Gov­er­nance Coun­cil (RDGC), a com­po­nent of the World Bank-fund­ed project, will play a vi­tal role in en­sur­ing that the OECS and its mem­ber states have ac­cess to high-qual­i­ty, time­ly, and re­li­able da­ta.

CAS­TRIES, St. Lu­cia, Jan 8, CMC

CMC//ag/ir/2025