Publication: Assessing Statistical Needs in Belize for Data-Driven Decision-Making: Summary of the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) Statistical Needs Assessment
Loading...
Date
2025-05-22
ISSN
Published
2025-05-22
Editor(s)
Abstract
This note presents findings of a Statistical Needs Assessment (SNA) of the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB). The aim of the assessment is to inform efforts to enhance the national statistical system for data driven decision-making. Belize has shown good progress in the development of its statistical infrastructure. Some challenges persist in data collection, coordination, and usage. Key priorities include developing the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS), integrating administrative data, and addressing resource constraints. Strengthening these areas will bolster SIB's capacity as a pivotal data producer and coordinator for informed policymaking.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“De Hoop, Jacobus Joost; Medina Giopp, Alejandro; Hulse, Gabrielle Michelle. 2025. Assessing Statistical Needs in Belize for Data-Driven Decision-Making: Summary of the Statistical Institute of Belize (SIB) Statistical Needs Assessment. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43228 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Improving the Productivity of National Offices for Statistics(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-07-31)This Suriname case study presents the main conclusions of the application of Improving the Productivity of National Offices for Statistics (IPNOS), a tool developed by the World Bank to assess the functioning of national statistical offices (NSOs). This approach was implemented at the General Bureau of Statistics (Algemeen Bureau voor de Statistiek, ABS), the NSO of Suriname, in May-July 2023. The exercise has allowed the comprehensive identification of the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges related to statistical production and dissemination in the country, as well the ABS coordination role with producers of national statistical systems (NSSs). The assessment has provided ABS with an action plan for the improvement of this crucial task in the future and has offered key recommendations for the implementation of the plan.Publication Data-Driven Decision Making in Fragile Contexts(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-05-31)Data deficiencies contribute to state fragility and exacerbate fragile states’ already limited capacity to provide basic services, public security and rule of law. The lack of robust, good quality data can also have a disabling effect on government efforts to manage political conflict, and indeed can worsen conflict, since violent settings pose substantial challenges to knowledge generation, capture and application. In short, in fragile contexts the need for reliable evidence at all levels is perhaps greater than anywhere else. The development of sustainable and professional ‘data-literate’ stakeholders who are able to produce and increase the quality and accessibility of official statistics can contribute to improved development outcomes. Good quality and reliable statistics are also required to track the progress of development policies through the monitoring of performance indicators and targets and to ensure that public resources are achieving results. While data alone cannot have a transformative effect without the right contextual incentives it is an essential and necessary prerequisite for greater accountability and more efficient decision-making. This volume explores methods and insights for data collection and use in fragile contexts, with a focus on Sudan. It begins by posing several questions on the political economy of data, and then sets out a framework for assessing the validity, reliability, and potential impact of data on decision-making in a fragile country. It also sets out insights on challenges associated with fragile states, derived from recent data collected in Sudan: the 2014/2015 DFID Sudan household survey. This includes data-driven analysis of topics including female genital mutilation, public service delivery, and the interplay of governance, service quality, and state legitimacy.Publication Improving the Productivity of National Offices for Statistics(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-06)For decades, policy experts’ and practitioner consensus has been growing about the crucial role quality data plays in informing policy making. This has led to investment and projects to increase quality data availability. But progress has been slow, as reflected by slow improvement in country statistical capacity, many countries remain data deprived. The IPNOS toolkit is based on the notion that producing more and better statistics, while requiring adequate resources, should also be efficient. Various initiatives assess national statistical systems’ (NSS) and data production. The World Bank’s IPNOS initiative complements existing kits, providing in-depth analytical tools to evaluate the efficiency of national statistical offices (NSOs), including costs, data quality, and NSO management. IPNOS application in 3 countries has identified bottlenecks and areas for improvement to inform data policies.Publication Data Utilization and Evidence-Based Decision Making in the Health Sector : Survey of Three Indian States(World Bank, 2009-04-01)Recently, there has been increased attention to data use in the international public health community. At the global level there have been major investments in data collection for public health programs. However, there is concern that such data are not being used. Data and information lack value unless they are used to inform decisions. Interventions that increase local demand for information and facilitate its use enhance evidence-based decision making. Data use therefore, is critical to improving the effectiveness and sustainability of the health system. Data quality is poor and use of available data is low in India's health sector. The current study focuses on issues of data use. It aims to shed light on how data are used for decision-making at different levels of the health sector in India and to highlight impediments to improved data utilization. This report is organized in five sections. The survey design, instruments and the data collection process will be described in the next section. Findings including measurement of data use, perceived data use issues, skills assessment of respondents and ranges of actual decision making are presented in section three. Section four presents a number of hypotheses and discusses their implications. The last section provides conclusions and recommendations.Publication Socio-economic impacts of COVID-19 in Solomon Islands(Washington, DC, 2022-09)The Pacific Observatory is a World Bank initiative to increase data availability and quality and to promote evidence-based policy decisions. This presentation utilizes data from the Pacific Observatory’s high frequency phone surveys in Solomon Islands to detail socio-economic indicators related to: employment and incomes; community trust, food insecurity, and coping strategies; and health care access and COVID-19.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication The Mexican Social Protection System in Health(World Bank, Washington DC, 2013-01)With a population of 113 million and a per-capita Gross Domestic Product, or GDP of US$10,064 (current U.S. dollars), Mexico is one of the largest and highest-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). The country has benefited from sustained economic growth during the last decade, which was temporarily interrupted by the financial and economic crisis. Real GDP is projected to grow 3.8 percent and 3.6 percent in 2012 and 2013, respectively (International Monetary Fund, or IMF 2012). Despite this growth, poverty in the country remains high; with half of the population living below the national poverty line. The country is also highly heterogeneous, with large socioeconomic differences across states and across urban and rural areas. In 2010, while the extreme poverty ratio in the Federal District and the states of Colima and Nuevo Leon was below 3 percent, in Chiapas, Guerrero, and Oaxaca it was 25 percent or higher. These large regional differences are also found in other indicators of well-being, such as years of schooling, housing conditions, and access to social services. This case study assesses key features and achievements of the Social Protection System in Health (Sistema de Proteccion Social en Salud) in Mexico, and particularly of its main pillar, Popular Health Insurance (Seguro Popular, PHI). It analyzes the contribution of this policy to the establishment and implementation of universal health coverage in Mexico. In 2003, with the reform of the General Health Law, the PHI was institutionalized as a subsidized health insurance scheme open to the population not covered by the social security schemes. Today, the PHI covers all of its intended affiliates, about 52 million peoplePublication Europe and Central Asia Economic Update, Spring 2025: Accelerating Growth through Entrepreneurship, Technology Adoption, and Innovation(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-23)Business dynamism and economic growth in Europe and Central Asia have weakened since the late 2000s, with productivity growth driven largely by resource reallocation between firms and sectors rather than innovation. To move up the value chain, countries need to facilitate technology adoption, stronger domestic competition, and firm-level innovation to build a more dynamic private sector. Governments should move beyond broad support for small- and medium-sized enterprises and focus on enabling the most productive firms to expand and compete globally. Strengthening competition policies, reducing the presence of state-owned enterprises, and ensuring fair market access are crucial. Limited availability of long-term financing and risk capital hinders firm growth and innovation. Economic disruptions are a shock in the short term, but they provide an opportunity for implementing enterprise and structural reforms, all of which are essential for creating better-paying jobs and helping countries in the region to achieve high-income status.Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication At Your Service?: The Promise of Services-led Growth in Uzbekistan(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-01-07)In Uzbekistan, the services sector accounts for more than half of all jobs and has been central to the process of structural transformation over the past three decades. In the past decade, the growth of Uzbekistan’s services exports has lagged behind its manufactures' exports while FDI greenfield announcements to both sectors have been even. The growth of the services sector in the past five years was driven by social services, mostly reflecting increased public spending. This report groups the services sector into four categories based on their skill intensity, the extent of their linkages with other sectors, and their tradability in international markets: low-skilled consumer services, low-skilled enabling services , global innovator services. Of these groups, social services accounted for three-fourths of employment growth in the services sector between 2017–2022. These services also experienced relatively high rates of labor productivity growth, which was largely driven by higher public spending on wages and salaries.Publication 2022 Mini Grids for Half a Billion People(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2022-09-22)This book is packed with actionable information for decision-makers, and it is the World Bank’s most comprehensive and authoritative publication on mini grids to date. The objective of this comprehensive knowledge package is to present road-tested options and examples from the leading edge of mini grid development. Decision-makers can draw on these options and examples to scale up mini grid deployment in their own contexts. By acknowledging different national approaches to mini grids and providing context-specific considerations for implementation, this suite of knowledge products offers an adaptive approach to helping countries achieve their electrification targets. The book is structured as follows. The overview presents a global market outlook for mini grids and introduces the 10 building blocks that need to be in place if mini grids are to be scaled up in any country. These building blocks also represent the 10 frontiers for innovation for the sector, where, with disruptive digital solutions across all 10 frontiers, the services offered to end users can be raised to a level substantially better than what would be possible with alternatives. In the Handbook, the terms “building blocks” and “frontiers” are used interchangeably. Chapters 1–10 present the 10 building blocks in detail and answer the question how do we scale up mini grid deployment to connect half a billion people by 2030 Chapter 11 is our call to action.