The CARICOM Secretariat is close to finalising arrangements for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to fund the production of National Analytical Census reports for member states. The arrangements will also allow for the publication of a number of regional monographs and aggregated information for the region.
Osmond Gordon, the regional census coordinator at the secretariat, told Stabroek News that the project was part of a wider programme of technical assistance and the funding for the component dealing with the census was likely to be in the region of US$1.5 million.
He said that the census component would facilitate the analysis of the data coming out of the national censuses and for this information to be provided to planners and policymakers. Gordon explained that a series of user seminars would be organised at which the information would be discussed with policymakers and planners.
He explained too that the regional monographs would address a number of topics of special interest. These topics include gender issues, unemployment, intra-regional migration as it relates to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, youth and the elderly.
Gordon said that emphasis would be on the production of reports in a timely manner so that they could inform policy decisions on the relevant issues.
Gordon also commented on the high level of cooperation among member states in this round of census taking, the fieldwork for which began in 2000 and ends this year with the completion of the work in Guyana and Suriname. In 2000, Belize, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Bermuda and the Bahamas completed their fieldwork. In 2001, Jamaica, the member states of the eastern Caribbean and the Turks and Caicos completed theirs.
Gordon said that the more experienced member states such as Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Belize and St Lucia have been helping the others in the conduct of their fieldwork as well as with editing and data processing. He said that a result of the cooperation was a body of data which when aggregated gave a regional picture.
Gordon explained that the aggregation was possible because of the development of a common core of questions, definitions and concepts. He was also high in his praise of the way the regional governments have responded to funding the fieldwork for the censuses, which in the past had been mainly funded by the UNFPA. (The Guyana government is footing the bill for the enumeration exercise, which is expected to be in excess of $90 million.) He said that the UN agency seemed to be taking the position of funding the post-fieldwork aspect of the census exercise.