Activities

Since its insertion in 1996, the MECOVI program has worked in more than 15 countries in the Latin American and Caribbean Region, performing activities at country and regional levels.

 

Main Activities at Country Level                 

 

The MECOVI program has undertaken activities in: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Dominican Republic and the OECS countries.  Financial aid and technical assistance is provided to these countries for the main purpose of improving the design and implementation of household surveys and the use of survey data, as well as the design and implementation of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics.

 

Other countries have voiced their interest in receiving the Program’s support.  Most of these countries have received grants from the Institutional Development Fund (IDF) and from the Trust Fund for Statistical Capacity Building (TFSCB).  These funds supplement the support given by other donors aimed at financing technical assistance activities and at building the capacities of the National Statistical Offices to program and implement household surveys and other related activities.

Main Activities at Regional Level         

        

At regional level, activities are focused on the following main topics:

• To improve the surveys’ methodology and the capacity for poverty analysis in order to estimate social indicators based on household surveys’ data;
• To create, maintain, improve and update a data bank with information gathered through household surveys at regional level;
• To create and implement information systems to follow-up on the living conditions; and
• To build the capacity of users and producers of statistical information.

Central to assuming the new responsibilities faced by the key stakeholders in the National Statistical System (NSS), is the need to build their capacity to produce high-quality statistical data, the coordination among actors, and the dissemination of the information.  To this end, the MECOVI program has conducted several training courses targeting the technical staff of the National Statistical Offices (NSOs) and other NSS agencies, including the development of National Strategies for the Development of Statistics, among others.  Some of these courses shall be available shortly through this Website.

 

Some specific regional activities that can be mentioned are:

 

• Regional Workshops: The MECOVI program foresees the organization of two regional workshops per year.  As of to date, a total of 14 workshops have been conducted in Aguascalientes (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina), and Lima (Peru).   For more detailed information and workshop materials, see Regional Workshops and Background Material. 
• Regional Training Courses: The objective of the MECOVI regional training courses is to strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of the National Statistical Offices through training related to planning, design and implementation of household surveys, and methods for poverty analysis.  The content of the training courses was developed jointly by personnel of the World Bank and the IDB.  As of to date, 13 regional courses have been conducted.  The link Regional Training Courses provides more information about such courses.
• Regional Databases: The Poverty and Gender Group has created a regional database, which includes a data stock of more than 400 household surveys conducted in 28 countries of the Latin American and Caribbean Region.  The data is available to users of the World Bank, and have been used extensively by the Bank’s researchers in numerous research and development projects, both in the region and abroad.  For more information related to the database, please contact: lac-estadisticas@worldbank.org.

Throughout 2007, the World Bank shall launch the inclusion of a regional database within the search platforms: for external users of the World Bank system, through Quick Query (soon to be released); and for internal users of the World Bank system, the statistical information shall be available through DDP (soon to be released).