Belize City. July 10th, 2019. As part of its support to strengthen the country’s capacity to produce and use quality official statistics, the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) officially launched the Belize National Statistical System (BNSS) Portal and the SIB Website at the Radisson Fort George Hotel on Wednesday, July 10. A live demonstration of the BNSS Portal  and the SIB website was presented by SIB staff to participants, which included representatives from the government and organizations that comprise the BNSS, members of the diplomatic community, and international development partners.

 

The launch of the BNSS Portal shows the significant progress that has been made in the development of the country’s National Statistical System. The portal is an integrated data management system designed to:

 

•    be the official source for indicators and meta-data for the country specifically the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD), Growth and Sustainable Development Strategy (GSDS), and the BNSS;

•    improve coordination and sharing of information between SIB and BNSS members, as well as among the NSS members themselves;

•    standardize and reduce the amount of effort needed to transfer data between organizations;

•    give the general public access to disseminated indicator data which can be used to create their own reports and graphs; and

•    enable any user to be able to export the data on the portal.

 

The portal is a complement to the new open data access platform, Redatam, on SIB’s official website. Retadam, which was developed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), is accessible through the SIB’s website and allows users to generate customized tables from the country’s 1991, 2000, and 2010 Population and Housing Census datasets. Together, the portal and the website will help to fulfill the data needs of users in government, civil society, academia, businesses, and international organizations.

 

The IDB partnership with the SIB is through a US$190,000 grant to strengthen and utilize the BNSS to produce the statistical information required to support effective evidence-based policy making across sectors.

 

The IDB has been supporting activities to strengthen the SIB and the Belize National Statistical System (BNSS) for several years. The focus has been on institutional assessments, the production of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics, capacity building and the provision of technical assistance in areas related to data production, sharing, use, and dissemination. In addition, in 2018 the IDB provided support for the establishment of a bachelor’s degree program in statistics and a certificate program in geographic information systems at the University of Belize, and is providing support for the 2020 Population and Housing Census. Successful sustainable development in Belize requires the availability of accurate, complete, and timely data to underpin effective decision making based on evidence.

 

About the IDB

The Inter-American Development Bank’s mission is to improve lives. Founded in 1959, the IDB is one of the main sources of long-term financing for the economic, social and institutional development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The IDB also conducts state-of-the-art research projects and provides policy advice, technical assistance and training to public and private clients throughout the region. 

 

For more information, please visit: https://www.iadb.org/belize

 

Press contact:

Loreto Setien

IDB Communications Associate

loretos@iadb.org