Guyana on right track with public data collection – Dr Rist
Guyana is ranked second in the Caribbean as it relates to the commencement of data collection, and results-based measurement. This is according to the Co-Director of the International Programme for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) of the Finance Ministry, Dr Ray Rist.
Participants of the Finance Ministry’s Monitoring and Evaluation Training Workshop
Dr Rist said that Guyana was ahead of most Caribbean countries, with Trinidad and Tobago at number one. He pointed out that the Health and Education Ministries were starting to demonstrate the competence to collect data and 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 noted.
It was 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).
Finance Ministry is currently undertaking a Monitoring and Evaluation Training Workshop. The workshop, which ends on Friday, is being hosted at the Arthur Chung Convention Centre (ACCC).
Some of the areas that are to be covered during the workshop include: 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 would train persons to be able to answer the ‘what question’ – whether Government programmes are effective.
Dr Rist said that the intent was 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 was to make sure the approach was systematic, logical and collected 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.
