BARBADOS, like other countries in the Caribbean, has been challenged in being able to provide data to support its progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Minister of Social Care, Chris Sinckler, said on Wednesday that Barbados was asked by the United Nations Economic and Social Council in 2007 to report on its progress in achieving the MDGs at the Annual Ministerial Review in Geneva.
“We took the opportunity to report enthusiastically on what we were doing, and our report was well received. However, unlike the other four countries that reported, we could offer little metadata to support our narrative. This was indeed unfortunate and impressed upon us the need to put measures in place so that something like this would not befall us again,” he said while delivering opening remarks at a consultation to review the draft tool kit for poverty and sustainable monitoring systems yesterday.
The consultation, held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, included participants from the United Nations Development Programme Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.
He added that as far as the timeliness of the tool kit was concerned, it came on the eve of the hearings at the United Nations “concerning the progress of member countries in achieving the MDGs at the ten-year interval and just five years shy of 2015 – the target date identified for countries around the world to attain these goals”. (AH)
