Information for Decision-making for Sustainable Development

(IDSD) ProjectA 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 MissionFirst 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 technology

• Data compatibility and standardization

• Lack of central or unifying strategy for collecting and using data

• Lack of coordination between producers and and users of data

• Data accessibility –functionally and practically (paper vs electronic)

• Limited perspectives on development

• Effective multi-criteria decision-making

• Lack of information 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.

• 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

The Long-term Challenge