Guyana on right track with public data collection – Dr Rist

GINA, GUYANA, Sunday, November 13, 2016

Guyana is ranked second in the Caribbean as it relates to the commencement of data collection, and results-based measurement. This is according to Dr. Ray Rist, the Co-Director of the International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) of the Ministry of Finance.

Participants that will be taking part in the  Ministry of Finance’s, Monitoring and Evaluation Training Workshop

Participants that will be taking part in the Ministry of Finance’s, Monitoring and Evaluation Training Workshop

Dr. Rist said that Guyana is ahead of most of the Caribbean countries with Trinidad and Tobago at number one. Dr. Rist pointed out that the Health and Education Ministries are starting to demonstrate the competence to collect data and to be able to analyse it.

“We have had some good data and analysis for the health performance issues, and some of the education performance issues, and you can’t make these decisions unless you have this data,” Dr. Rist.

Dr. Rist explained that IPDET is currently collecting data on book distribution in Guyana, which was not going well a few years ago, as well as on the ability of Guyana to distribute drugs for hospitals and clinics around the country.

“Guyana is being better served by the book distribution group and by the drug distribution group and that can’t be said for a lot of other countries down in the Caribbean, you guys are getting it right,” Dr. Rist pointed out to the Government Information Agency (GINA).

Dr. Rist spoke to GINA following the conclusion of the opening session of a Ministry of Finance’s Mini-IPDET Monitoring Evaluation Training Workshop at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC). The workshop ends on Friday.

Some of the areas that are to be covered during the workshop includes: designing and building results-based monitoring and evaluation systems, understanding the evaluation context, and the programme theory of change, selecting and constructing data collection instruments, and planning for and conducting data analysis.

When asked how important this workshop is for Guyana, Dr. Rist said that it will train persons to be able to answer the ‘what question’, whether Government programmes are effective.

“It’s not enough to stay busy, and if you don’t know where you are going; if you have no clarity in what it is you are trying to do,” Dr. Rist said. The workshop is emphasising good measurement, good logic and also collecting the correct data so that the Government can know whether the work that it is trying to accomplish is actually happening or not.

Dr. Rist said that the intent is to improve good public management “because if you are going to manage well, you have to have good data.” He pointed out that the key thing is to make sure the approach is systematic, that it’s logical and that it collects the correct data, noting that when Government collects data, in the long-term it will be in a better position to say which projects should be funded.

 

 

By: Gabreila Patram

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