By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas’ main economic data provider is facing challenges to maintain its “credibility and independence” due to resource constraints such as “significant” staffing issues, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has warned.

The multilateral lender, in unveiling a $150,000 project to strengthen the Bahamas National Statistical Institute (BNSI), said that the agency established by law in 2021 to oversee The Bahamas’ national statistical system faces numerous obstacles in its quest to consistently produce timely, accurate and high-quality data that government policymakers can rely on for getting decisions and planning right.

The IDB, in documents obtained by Tribune Business, describes these impediments as the failure to implement governance mechanisms such as the National Statistics Committee, which would oversee data gathering; the absence of a national statistical strategy; an “under-developed” technology infrastructure; and personnel constraints.

Carl Oliver, the Ministry of Finance’s deputy director of economic planning, wrote in a December 19, 2024, letter to the IDB that addressing these challenges and boosting the reliability of official statistics provided to policymakers “is a priority for the Government of The Bahamas”.

As a result, he requested the bank’s assistance in establishing the National Statistics Committee; strengthen the “technical knowledge and capacity” of its staff and those at the Institute; and expand the statistics generated from the Family Islands including private destinations owned by the likes of the cruise lines and individual billionaire and millionaire investors.

“The creation of the BNSI represented a major institutional milestone, providing the country with a strengthened legal and organisational framework for the production of statistics. However, the NSS (national statistical system) continues to face challenges that constrain its ability to consistently generate timely, accessible and high-quality data for policymaking and development planning,” the IDB warned.

“Currently, the BNSI faces a range of challenges, including growing demand for timely and disaggregated data, the integration of non-traditional data sources, and the need to maintain credibility and independence while operating under resource constraints.

“Additionally, the Institute must adapt to technological advancements, develop integrated data infrastructure and address data gaps in critical areas such as economic, social and environmental dynamics. The Institute also faces significant human capital challenges, including the need for training programmes and career development paths to ensure renewal of staff and attract new generations.”

Accurate, correct and timely evidence-based decisions are difficult, if not impossible, to make without access to numbers and data that are true and right. The BNSI is now producing quarterly updates on The Bahamas’ gross domestic product (GDP) or economic output; the labour force and unemployment numbers; this nation’s physical goods trade with its partners; and construction industry production.

Breaking down The Bahamas’ challenges, the IDB said: “First, the governance arrangements of the NSS require consolidation. The Statistics Act 2021 envisaged the establishment of a National Statistics Committee (NSC) as a mechanism to co-ordinate across ministries and agencies such as the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health.

“While this committee has been foreseen in the legal framework, it has not yet been fully operationalised, and its rules of engagement and mandate remain to be defined. This situation limits the ability of the NSS to prioritise statistical needs and to align with the implementation of the National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS).

“Second, although a draft NSDS was developed with the support of the IDB, it has not yet been formally adopted as the main policy instrument guiding investment, programming and operations in the statistical sector. As a result, data production remains fragmented, the co-ordination between data producers and users is limited, and the use of administrative records for statistical purposes is still incipient.”

Detailing two other obstacles encountered by The Bahamas, the IDB report said: “Third, the BNSI faces institutional capacity constraints, particularly in relation to human resources. The Institute requires a structured programme to strengthen leadership and management skills, provide training in modern statistical methods, and to attract and retain new generations of professionals.

“This would ensure continuity and renewal of expertise, while equipping staff with the competencies necessary to apply innovative tools such as data mining, machine learning and advanced statistical techniques.

“Fourth, the technological infrastructure of the NSS remains under-developed. The absence of integrated IT systems and interoperability protocols between the BNSI and other government entities constrains the harmonisation of data, reduces efficiency in statistical operations, and delays the dissemination of official information,” the IDB added.

“Expanding the use of administrative records and modernising IT systems are necessary steps to improve the quality and timeliness of statistics, and to enhance co-ordination across government agencies.

“These institutional, technological and human resource challenges are not unique to The Bahamas, but are common among small island developing states, where limited scale and resource constraints create additional pressure on national statistical systems.

“Strengthening the BNSI and the NSS is therefore essential to ensure that The Bahamas can generate the statistical information needed to guide public policy, monitor progress toward national development goals and measure the impact of IDB-financed operations in the country.”

To address these issues, the IDB report said learning and technical exchanges will take place between the BNSI and South Korea’s Korea Statistical Information Institute (KOSII) and Statistics Korea (KOSTAT) to enable The Bahamas to benefit from the Asian nation’s “practical experience in modernising statistical governance and IT infrastructure”.

The multilateral lender added: “It is expected that the National Statistics Committee will be established, the NSDS will be updated and approved in alignment with the National Development Plan, the BNSI’s institutional capacity will be reinforced through training and academic partnerships, and a proposal for an integrated IT system will be developed to improve co-ordination and data integration.

“As a result, the Government of The Bahamas will have access to better data to design and monitor programmes, and the IDB will be able to measure the impact of its operations in the country. In addition, the [project] is expected to strengthen BNSI’s institutional leadership within the NSS, enhance stakeholder confidence in the quality and reliability of official data, and increase co-ordination among government entities producing and using statistics, thereby improving the Government’s capacity to design, monitor and evaluate public policies and development programmes based on evidence…

“The final beneficiaries are government agencies, the private sector, academia, civil society and the citizens of The Bahamas, who will benefit from more timely, accessible and high-quality official statistics to support evidence-based policymaking and improved public policies.”

Mr Oliver, in his letter to the IDB, asserted: “The production of relevant, reliable and timely official statistics that provide policy makers with the data necessary to effectively monitor the progress of government programmes, and generate the empirical evidence that informs the efficient allocation of public resources for the development of the country, is a priority for the Government of The Bahamas.”

Among the objectives, he added, is to “expand the generation of official statistics in the Family Islands - including the private islands - with the aim to better capture their economic and social activities, and thus improve local and national policies”.