There is growing awareness within the World Bank and the Latin American and Caribbean Region regarding the need to have an adequate production, utilization and coordination of high-quality statistical information for the design of evidence-based public policies.

The creation of the Team for Statistical Development draws upon more than 10 years of work within the framework of the Program for the Improvement of Surveys and Measurement of Living Conditions in Latin America and the Caribbean (MECOVI, for its acronym in Spanish), expanding its tasks to include the National Strategies for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) as another line of work. + More on the Team for Statistical Development. 

Award Finalists

Dear All

First of all, let me take this opportunity to thank you all for your participation in the Second Regional Award for Innovation in Statistics. The World Bank received more than 170 applications from 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the final stage of evaluations for the Award has been completed. We would like to congratulate the following institutions for been selected as finalists, because their programs have the highest scores.

We appreciate the interest you have shown in the Regional Award for Innovation in Statistics, and we look forward to your continued collaboration.

A personalized letter is addressed to each of the finalists’ institutions announcing the next steps to guarantee their attendance at the World Bank Celebrations of the World Statistics Day and the ceremony of the Statistics Award in Washington DC. (18, 19, 20th of October)

If you have any additional questions, please contact Pedro Jose Fernandez in the Team for Statistical Development (pfernandezayala@worldbank.org).

Scholarships Awards from INE (Spain)  

During the meeting of the Statistical Commission of the United Nations and the National Statistics Institute (INE) of Spain, the awards committee awarded five grants to fellowship applicants. The INE offered five fellowships for this year in the following courses in Madrid: 1) Seminar on Data Collection, 2) Seminar on Labor Statistics, 3) Seminar on Statistical Operations of the Services Sectors, 4) Seminar on Vital Statistics, and 5) Seminar on Quality Management of Official Statistics.

With 65 applications registered by December 23, the committee made the first drawing for the first three fellowships.  The winners of this drawing are the General Bureau of Statistics, Surveys, and the Census (DGEEC) of Paraguay, the National Chamber of Trade and Services of Uruguay, and  the National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEI) of Peru.

After the first drawing, the committee held a second drawing for two fellowships, with 112 applications registered between 24 December and 15 February. The winners of this second drawing were the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) of Colombia and the Barbados Statistical Service of Barbados.

In the event that  the winners cannot make use of the fellowship, they should notify INE so that the grant can be offered to the next institution on the list of winners (which include, in alphabetical order, the Colombian Federation of Livestock Producers (FEDEGAN), the National Statistics Institute of Guatemala, the Ministry of Education of Colombia, the Ministry of Planning of Chile, and the Ministry of Labor, Employment and Social Security of Argentina). The committee will notify the authorities of the steps to follow to obtain the fellowship in writing.