September 1, 2010 No. 37/10-G CDB HOSTS NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION FOR BARBADIAN STATISTICIANS Fifteen employees of the Barbados Statistical Service, the Central Bank of Barbados, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health have just completed a workshop on Data Analysis and Interpretation. The workshop was hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank and the Government of Barbados, and was held over the period August 18 to 31, 2010, at CDB's Conference Centre. It was designed to build the capacity of participants to analyse household and poverty data and in particular, will be of tremendous benefit to staff of the Statistical Service as they will be engaged in analysing data collected through the Survey of Living Conditions component of the Country Assessment of Living Conditions (CALC) study launched in April 2009, and the recently-completed national census. The CALC study is being implemented with the assistance of a National Assessment Team, approved by the Government of Barbados, and a CDB officer assigned to the project. The Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies was contracted as the Team of Consultants to undertake the analysis of data collected during the CALC, and to prepare the respective reports required during project implementation. CDB, the United Nations Development Programme and other development organisations operating in the Region have developed a programme to Support Poverty Assessment and Reduction in the Caribbean (SPARC). SPARC is designed to assist Caribbean countries in strengthening their capacity to systematically collect, analyse and disseminate social data for poverty assessment, as well as to critically inform social policy formulation and social planning at national levels. SPARC is designed to build on the programmatic support that already exists at the national, regional and sub-regional levels through the ongoing efforts of development partners engaged in poverty reduction initiatives. The programme promotes various activities including training in social analysis, seminars, workshops, policy dialogues and timely and consistent data dissemination at national and regional levels. At the end of the workshop on August 31, participants made presentations on various social issues that highlighted aspects of poverty and well being. These presentations preceded the official Closing Ceremony in which certificates were awarded to participants. The closing was chaired by Mr. Elbert Ellis (Operations Officer-Social Analyst, CDB). Mr. Lee Rose (Coordinator of the National Assessment Team) and Mrs. Tessa Williams-Robertson (Director of Projects, CDB) gave closing remarks.