PM questions accuracy of data showing Barbados’ SDG progress

As the island seeks to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 deadline, Prime Minister Mia Mottley is challenging the accuracy of the island’s data collection process.
She was speaking at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre for Monday evening’s national stakeholder consultation on the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where two reports – the National SDG Mapping and the Rapid Integrated Assessment (RIA) Report were presented to the Government, civil society, academia and trade unions on the island’s progress.
The National SDG Mapping Report showed that 43 of the 95 targets have either been met or will be met by 2030 because there is substantial progress. Additionally, 52 of the 95 targets are showing fair progress but there is a need to accelerate the implementation of the goals to push the targets to green.
According to the RIA, which looked at the policy planning documents, 92 per cent of the SDG target alignment with full or partial alignment was found for Barbados.
However, the Prime Minister stated that a realistic picture is not being portrayed in the reports on the progress the island is making in achieving these objectives, which are aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and ensuring prosperity for everyone within the next seven years.
“I make bold to say that these measurements are not even accurate because we have lost the art of collecting data with the systematic discipline that literally obtained in an earlier Barbados – and I’m not blaming any government or any institution. I’m not blaming anyone, but I ask all of us to recognise that if we don’t use the eyes at the front of our head and the energy for a partnership to be able to collect the right data, then we will not be able to close the gaps in ways that are important,” she stressed.
While SDG One speaks to reducing poverty, Mottley said it was “ironic” that inequity could not be captured in a measurement tool.
“Even though we talk about enfranchisement, we have not yet put the appropriate measurements to determine how people move from poverty to middle-class to lower middle income to middle income to upper middle income in this country,” she stated.
Lauding Barbados’ health sector data collection process as one of the best in this hemisphere, the PM stated that the island has to become more clinical in how it captures the relevant statistics.
“When we look at the highest breast cancer rates in the world, we record it, not because we probably have the highest but because we do better at recording data than most. Similarly, for the prostate. But that data now has to be used for a singular purpose to be able to resolve issues. Good policy comes from the best available data,” she added.
Prime Minister Mottley said it was time to move away from the traditional approaches to addressing issues like education and welfare to enable the country to close the SDG gaps regarding poverty, noting that Barbados can do far better “if we were doing what we were supposed to do in a more structured way.”
United Nations Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Didier Trebucq was positive about the island’s progress to date regarding the achieving SDGs and pledged the UN’s continued support in this venture.
(JB)