Anguilla participated in aint Luciathe recently concluded open-source Geographic Information Systems (GIS) workshop sponsored by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in collaboration with the World Bank, from November 5th – 9th, 2018 in Gros-Islet, Saint Lucia.
A GIS is a computerized system for capturing, storing, analyzing, visualizing and managing data, which is spatially referenced. The open-source GIS workshop aimed to support the OECS member and associate member countries’, National Statistics Offices (NSOs), and the agencies providing the NSOs with GIS technical assistance, in building technical capacity in the use of GIS tools efficiently and effectively for ultimately presenting disseminated data spatially. The workshop also supported the implementation of the OECS Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS), under the strategic priority ‘Join and Respond to the Data Revolution’.
Participants learned how to use GIS tools to create and update enumeration districts; analyze spatial trends and patterns within datasets; and create and disseminate maps to georeference and visualize data. The workshop included sessions of instruction as well as practical sessions in which participants created maps using QGIS, which is an open-source GIS platform. The practical sessions also included field data acquisition using Survey Solutions and Kobo.
QGIS can be used by NSOs to reduce resource challenges. The NSOs are currently in the process of preparing for the 2020 round of population and housing censuses and this workshop provided NSOs with the option of incorporating QGIS into the mapping component of the census fieldwork. This would assist in improving the quality of the data collection and dissemination.
Other countries, namely Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, British Virgin Islands, Montserrat, Dominica, Grenada, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines attended the workshop. Anguilla was represented by Senior Statistical Officer, Censuses, Surveys and Research of the Anguilla Statistics Department Ms. Dilece Connor and Senior Planner in the Department of Physical Planning, Mr. Stafford John. Their participation at the workshop was made possible by the OECS Commission and the Government of Anguilla.