SciDev.net: Small island developing states target ‘data revolution’

Small island developing states (SIDS) are trailing other developing countries in their journey towards a ‘data revolution’, say experts. Their comments come as a draft agreement to be discussed at the UN’s forthcoming conference on such nations is released, and includes a section that's aiming to ramp up their capacity to use data for development.

Factors such as underinvestment in statistics offices, inexperienced staff and ongoing reliance on paper questionnaires are felt more keenly in SIDS than in larger nations, say experts.

The draft agreement is part on ongoing UN discussions over how to achieve sustainable development in SIDS through partnerships, and is currently being negotiated ahead of the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States in Samoa (1-4 September). It says that a “data revolution is required in SIDS to enable effective follow up and evaluation of implementation [of sustainable development], and to track success in attaining the internationally agreed development goals”.

It goes on to commit SIDS to: strengthen data systems; ensure continued ownership of data by SIDS governments; and establish information and communications technology (ICT) platforms to facilitate information exchange and SIDS-SIDS cooperation.

And it urges relevant UN agencies and intergovernmental organisations to help establish a SIDS Sustainable Development Statistics and Information Programme with an emphasis on upgrading national statistical systems and mainstreaming data collection and analysis.

“The most striking dilemma for SIDS is the size and capacity of their national statistics offices,” says Millicent Gay Tejada, project officer for Asia and Pacific at Paris21 (Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century initiative). “Small NSOs are not even able to do basic statistical activities, and this would be magnified tenfold for SIDS countries.”

Some Pacific SIDS have fewer than ten NSO staff — of whom only a few are statistics professionals — yet they are required to produce similar data to those of larger countries. Large-scale statistical activities such as household surveys and censuses are particularly difficult to achieve, Tejada says.

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