PIOJ gets $10.6 Million to Enhance Data Collection

A sum of $10.6 million has been set aside in the 2007/08 Estimates of Expenditure, to allow the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ), to continue to establish a reliable and comprehensive source of macro-indicators for the country. This is to facilitate more information-based planning and wider accessibility to data.
This activity is carried out under the Institutionalisation of the DEVINFO project, which is funded by the Government and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and will, during the fiscal period, train 15 public sector workers as DEVINFO database administrators, and four technical officers as advanced administrators.
Since inception in August 2006, 13 public sector workers have been trained as DEVINFO database administrators and four technical officers as advanced administrators.
Over the lifetime of the project, which is scheduled to end in June, 2009, it is envisaged that: routine updating of the JamStats database will be accomplished; Internet access to the database will be facilitated; the database will be strengthened in terms of content, to include strategically important social and economic indicators (reviewed annually); and the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Youth, and the Jamaica Constabulary Force, along with the Statistical Institute of Jamaica and the PIOJ, will be empowered to use the software to report their data. Meanwhile, it is expected that a minimum of six major data producers will be strengthened to use the software to report their data; and all interested persons can rely on this national database for the information they need for monitoring, advocacy, planning and programming.