Georgetown, Guyana – (August 13, 2019) The Ministry of the Presidency’s Department of Environment, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Coordinating Office of the Green State Development Strategy (GSDS) recently held a technical capacity building workshop for 35 participants from 27 agencies.
The workshop, which was held from August 6-8, was themed, ‘Enhancing Environmental Statistics for Measurement and Evaluation’.
Speaking in the context of the GSDS: Vision 2040, Director of the Department of the Environment, Ms. Ndibi Schwiers, emphasied the importance of “good quality, verifiable statistics to Guyana’s ability to meet its international commitments to the climate, biodiversity and other environmental agreements and conventions, and to facilitate evidence-based decision-making.”
Meanwhile, Resident Coordinator of the United Nations (UN) System in Guyana, Ms. Mikiko Tanaka, reiterated the UN’s support to the country in its implementation of the Green State Development Strategy: Vision 2040 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). “The UN System will support Guyana’s renewed efforts to strengthen its data systems, through assistance in the development of a robust monitoring and evaluation framework for the Strategy and in the use of technologies for analysis of ‘big’ data, driving change in the culture of data management,” Ms. Tanaka said.
Additionally, Ms. Donna Levi, who represented the Ministry of Finance, reminded participants of Guyana’s commitment to the SDGs, as demonstrated by the country’s recent submission of its first Voluntary National Report on the SDGs to the High-Level Political Forum at the UN Secretariat in New York. “Guyana’s priority is education (SDG 4), and achieving our educational goals will require accurate data for demonstrating progress,” Ms. Levi said.
The Workshop outlined the elements of a statistical roadmap for Guyana, based on a robust foundation of data collection, in accordance with international procedures. It is part of capacity building activities under a project implemented by UNEP titled “Towards coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of the Sustainable Development Goals”. It was held at the Roraima Duke Lodge.
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