Modernizing Data Collection for a Better Belize

Belize is stepping up its game when it comes to data and decision-making. This week, experts from across the Caribbean have gathered right here for a four-day workshop focused on population estimates and projections. Why does it matter? Because solid statistics help governments make smarter choices, manage resources better, and truly understand what their people need. With demographers from seventeen countries in the room, Belize is helping lead the charge toward more informed, data-driven governance. News Five’s Britney Gordon has the story.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

Running a country without knowing its people is like flying blind, and that’s where good data comes in. But in the Caribbean, getting reliable statistics isn’t always easy, thanks to limited resources and capacity. That’s why Belize, along with regional partners, is stepping up. Today, the United Nations Population Fund launched a workshop aimed at sharpening the region’s skills in producing accurate, policy-ready population data. It’s all about helping governments make smarter decisions. UNFPA Belize Head of Office, Tisa Grant, shares more on the initiative.

 

Tisa Grant, Head of Office, UNFPA

“The discussion is going to look at looking at the population the demographic in the countries. so using the data from the various countries to estimate population. To project population based on trends that are related to fertility, related to migration, related to mortality. These three specific components make up what is called or would be a population policy. Not all countries in the region have one of these, but with or without the population policy, it is important for governments to have the capacity to be able to estimate their population and to be able to use that information to plan accordingly as it relates to education and health and unemployment and so forth.”

 

The project is organized in partnership with the Latin American and Caribbean Demographic Center with funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency. It started as a project meant to bolster Belize’s statistical data systems, however, the invitation was later extended to seventeen other countries to foster connections between data experts and build capacity for the entire region.

 

Helena Cruz Castanheira, Population Affairs Officer, ECLAC

“The objective of the workshop is to strengthen capacities and also build connections of the people that works with the data projections. So it’s demographic analysis and the importance of population estimates is almost of the denominators of all the rates for data and analytics. So, strengthen the capacities of MSOs to do this proper analysis and to have the capacity to analyze surveys, census data and have estimates, and project it. It’s very important for planning.”

 

Belize has a national stats office, the Statistical Institute of Belize, but getting access to full, up-to-date data across the region is still a challenge. That’s why this week’s training is such a big deal. According to Diana Castillo-Trejo, Director-General of SIB, sixteen of their team members are taking part in the workshop. She’s confident they’ll walk away with the technical skills needed to level up how data is collected and used, not only in Belize, but across the Caribbean.

 

Diana Castillo-Trejo, Director-General, Statistical Institute of Belize

“When we did the last census what we noted was that, and it’s something that we were expecting, that the census counts came out less than what was originally projected. And what we found was that there was a serious deficiency in our method of estimating population. And what we did then was we did an exercise of revamping our own methodology. And so this training here will just serve to strengthen that and further improve that so that going forward, we don’t have instances of that kind of deficiency.”

 

The sessions combine theory with hands-on exercises covering core topics such as age, sex, fertility, mortality, and international migration trends. Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Economic Transformation, Carlos Pol commended the initiative for its contribution to creating a reliable source of information for the public and the Government of Belize.

 

Carlos Pol, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Economic Transformation

“For us to make informed decisions, we need statistics and not just statistics, but we need accurate and reliable and timely statistics. So that’s one objective that we are achieving from this project. The second thing is working in collaboration and partnering with our Caribbean countries. It’s important for us when we when we develop something, we develop the benefit of our country yes, but our region, the Caribbean is for us and we’re here to support our Caribbean brothers and sister.”

 

This training is aimed at boosting regional capacity for data collection, but also provides an opportunity for regional collaboration and partnership. Britney Gordon for News Five.