The statistical institute of Belize, engaged with a number of Government and statutory bodies today in a task assessment exercise to assess statistical capacity within their respective agencies. Their Director General Diana Castillo gave us more details at the Biltmore this morning.

Diana Castillo, Director General, SIB
"Today we are carrying out the Task assessment the Task is the tool for assessing statistical capacity and this is our second iteration of carrying out the task this is an assessment tool that was developed by the US Census bureau for national statistical offices like the SIB to assess their own statistical capacity and we have adapted it to also assess the capacity of other agencies that produce statistics within Belize so our partners in the national statistical system."

"So the assessment comprises of a wide range of assessments that cover various areas of institutional capacity technical capacity communications capacity etc and it's meant to assess and give a quantitative scope to the SIB and the NSS agencies ability to carry out basic statistical functions so it is a quantitative measure to put a value to where we are right now in terms of our capacity to produce statistics and for the SIB as well to coordinate the national statistical system. What this assessment is to be used for is 1 it gives us a clear idea of where we are as a system and producers of statistics at this time it identifies what our strengths are our areas of weaknesses are that we will need to address in the coming years and for our funding partners it provides then with a basis for justifying funding of programs and activities to strengthen the statistical system."

Based on today's session, a report will be produced in the next few weeks.