Information for Decision-making

for Sustainable Development

(IDSD) Project
A joint effort by the United Nations Department of
Economic and Social Affairs and the General
Secretariat of the Organization of American States

by Leisa Perch, Project Coordinator, GS/OAS

for the IDSD Resource Persons’ Meeting on “ Using

Information for Decision-making on Sustainable
Development – Issues and Challenges for Caribbean SIDS,
Rex St. Lucia, May 27th, 2003, St. Lucia
Information for Decision-Making
for Sustainable Development
(IDSD) Project

• Why focus on Information Management?

• Where did the IDSD Project come from?

• What are the challenges in the region

regarding information management?
 Why focus on Information
Management? (I)
• Ready access to reliable data is key for decision-making

• Information is power

• SIDS lack readily available data on sustainable

development and environment

• Sharing information regarding institutional procedures

is key for implementation of decisions
 Why focus on Information
Management? (II)
• Recognize that information will underpin all
efforts towards sustainable development (Agenda
21 and SIDS/POA)
• Countries in the region are overburdened by
statistical and international reporting demands that
are often far from the realities of the countries’
• The increasing number of global frameworks and
mandates requiring reporting and data collection.
 Why IDSD and why now? (I)
• Environmental statistics is a relatively new field in
the Caribbean region
• Unites Nations Statistics Division has recently
completed effort in collaboration with CARICOM
compiling social/gender and environmental
statistics and indicators for the region
• Environmental statistics workshop held in Belize
in 2000 launched the environmental phase of the
above project
 Why IDSD and why now? (II)
• Several countries have initiated
compendiums of environmental statistics at
the national level
• Many programmes/activities focusing on
data, access,comparability, statistics etc
• Countries are starting to grapple with the
MDG Declaration as well as the Targets
agreed at Johannesbu in 2002
 What are the key challenges?
• What mechanisms are required for long-term
information management?

• How does one harness information for

decision-making purposes?

• Addressing the lack of consistency in reporting

formats to MEAs
 Project Objectives
• Identify and assess regional and country
needs in information management systems
for sustainable development
• Develop materials for training of local
human resources
• Create a regional electronic site for
accessing information on information
management systems and techniques
 Main Project Activities/Key
Events
• Assessment of existing activities and capacity in the
region – April 2003
• Facilitating sharing of information through website –
launched May 2003
• Establishment of pilot network – July 2003
• Collation of best practices and tools, implementation
of training course – June/September 2003
• Enhancement of technical capacity through support
for new equipment, training materials –
September/October 2003
 Project Implementation
• Project executed by OAS

• UN will finance the project through a ----

US $271,000 contribution

• Four countries have been selected to

participate as pilots – Barbados, Belize,
Jamaica and St. Lucia
 Expected Project Outputs (I)
• A pilot network of national, regional, and local
institutions

• Resource persons from the region trained as

information managers

• Training materials accesible through SIDSNET

 Expected Project Outputs (II)
• A forum of exchange for experiences
among information system managers
throughout the region

• A final report on implementation, including

an assessment and evaluation of the projects
 Progress in Project:

• Completed:
 Planning and Assessment Mission
 First iteration of the project website
• In progress
 Identification of priority training needs
 Identification of a framework for a pilot network
 Input from regional resource persons to confirm key
capacity-building needs, training priorities and overall
needs for information sharing
 Objectives of this Workshop
• Review findings and conclusions of Assessment
• Agree on main issues and themes for the region at
the present
• Agree on indicative priority training needs to
inform the development of training materials
• Develop basic principles for information for
decision-making which could inform SIDS +10
discussions
• Discuss structure for a pilot network
 PART 2
Assessment and Establishment of a
Baseline for Information Management, use
and capacity in the region
Information for Decision-making
“ The utility and effectiveness of a decision is in
direct proportion to the quality and availability of
information”.

“Easy accessibility to information on institutional

procedures and frameworks increases the
probability of being able to implement a decision
once it has been taken”.
 Objective of Assessment
• To identify and assess regional and country status
and needs in information management, systems for
sustainable development
• Assess what is happening, who is doing what,
identify priority issues within themes, and
determine what the contribution of the project could
be and in which areas
• Identify some of the challenges
• Identify potential pilot countries and potential
project partners
 Methodology
• Acknowledge that a lot has been done
• Review and assess previous work
• Employ innovative mechanisms for obtaining a lot
of information in a limited time-frame
• Assess funding priorities of donors - meet with the
donor agencies and regional organizations
• Meet with key national agencies/agency
 Expected Results
• Clear idea or picture of state of play and
efforts relating to information and
information management as well as
developmental trends
• Identify key priority areas
• Obtain a picture on potential needs
• Identify path/scope for further project
implementation
 Findings (1)
• Clearly there is a lot of emphasis amongst donors and
countries on information availability and technology
• There are many initiatives – some small, some
involving the entire region, and in many diverse areas
• There are some clear “hot” themes which also reflect
present directions at the international level and clearly
where the present funding trends are.
• Several information management systems are being
developed or piloted in Environment, Water,
Economics, Tourism, Land Evaluation , Coastal
Resources and Regional Environmental Issues.
 Findings (2)
In Disaster Management alone there are efforts ranging
from database development, decision-making,
approaches to standardization.
• Trade Statistics are being developed on a number of
fronts – regional and national.
• Efforts also range from the geo-spatial to
governance, to natural resource management, to land
use, to social and health, to statistics to training in
information management
• 7 information management systems which have been
developed or are being piloted; 13 information-
related activities in the sustainable development area
 Findings (2 cont’d)
• At least 20 or more projects are being implemented
amongst various agencies touching on some level of
information management
• Activities range from data collection, statistics, indices,
indicators and information management
• Reporting demands: There are currently 12 UN requests
to Member states for national reports – most annual and
most are mandatory. A further 3 report frameworks are
carried out by UN-led teams and 29 efforts relate to
information and data gathered by the UN system
 Findings (3)
• At the national level,
– All CARICOM countries are involved in some
activity relating to information management – all
certainly involved in data collection
– Many are involved in efforts to develop
information management systems either for their
own specific needs or as pilots
– Only some are involved at the level of looking at
decision-making. In fact, few seem ready for that
level of activity; and
– Reporting at the international level remains
sporadic, incomplete and challenging
 Some key themes
• Participation/participatory approaches
• Health – AIDS
• Trade
• Vulnerability
• Human Development
• Decision-making
• Making Governments e-ready
• Gender Issues
 General Issues Identified
  Fundamental gaps still exist in data collected related to environmental
aspects in several CARICOM countries.
 
  General standards for the coding of information remain ad hoc, therefore
creating data incompatibility issues.
 
  There is a lack of knowledge on how to extract and manage sustainable
development data in ways that are productive for decision-making, and
for the implementation of those decisions.
 
  The integration of data and information relating to various sustainable
development issues remains challenging.

  Lack of continuous and high-speed access to the Internet.

General Issues Identified cont’d
   Information management is only incompletely digital,
 
   Few forums exist at the national and or regional level
for exchanging information and experiences on
sustainable development needs for decision-making.
 
   Community involvement in the design and development
of national monitoring processes continues to be a
challenge, occurring infrequently.
 
   Reviews of the effectiveness of activities of projects
conducted by donor agencies, in terms of impacts and
achievements, are rarely conducted.
 Some Key
Achievements/Advances
• UNDP Capacity 21 - 8 out of 10 countries have
developed reports on progress in poverty reduction
strategies
• All countries or almost all have completed and submitted
their First National Communications on climate change
• Trade database for CARICOM countries has been
developed and established online by ECLAC
• Establishment of Sustainable Development Units and
programmes within Ministries charged with Environment
or related issues
 Some Key
Achievements/Advances cont’d
• Establishment of Indicator programmes in a
number of countries – Barbados, Jamaica
• Countries moving towards Integrated
Development Planning – Dominica, St. Lucia
• Creation of institutional mechanisms to address
key issues i.e. the Climate Change Centre, the
Disaster Management Facility at CDB
• Availability of information to develop indices for
social vulnerability, resiliency and disadvantage
in the human development field
 Some key advances cont’d
• Establishment of CARICOM Advisory Group on
Social/Gender and Environment Statistics
• CEPNET Project and capacity established in using
technology to manage information
• Development of MIST, ALES and CRIS – the
beginning for multi-criteria decision support
systems
• The establishment of a Development Partners for
Poverty Working Group (DPWWG) to harness
poverty reduction efforts in the region
 Key Remaining Challenges
• Keeping up with • Data accessibility –
technology functionally and
• Data compatibility and practically (paper vs
standardization electronic)
• Lack of central or • Limited perspectives on
unifying strategy for development
collecting and using data • Effective multi-criteria
• Lack of coordination decision-making
between producers and • Lack of information
and users of data policies
 Critical Challenge
• Even in all of the present efforts and
assuming that we address most of these
challenges – a fundamental question
remains:
– How we will know if data is being used
effectively and being used for making
decisions?
 Conclusions
• Social, environmental and sustainable
development data efforts need to be further
strengthened.
• Only with some attempt to define information
priority needs can some of the fundamental data
questions and challenges be addressed.
• The absence of clear sustainable development
priorities and strategies makes it difficult to
monitor and collect data on the issue.
 Conclusions cont’d
• There is a lot of data which already exists. It can
be used with the right analytical expertise –
capacity-building in this area is as critical as
training in collection of newer types of
information.
• New approaches and methods exist which must be
explored and evaluated.
• Much to be gained from the efforts of others in
addressing some of these challenges.
• Though there is a lot of information –making it
useful for decision-making is where the challenge
lies.
 The Long-term Challenge

• Agenda 21 addressed the issue of

“Information for Decision-making” in the
last chapter and noted it as the factor which
would underpin all other issues
• Chapter 40 also highlighted 2 key issues:
– Bridging the information gap within and
between countries
– Improving the availability of and access to
information