About this event
In the Caribbean, significant progress was recorded during the first 15 years of the millennium. Child mortality figures improved, the number of people living on less than USD 2.5 per day reduced significantly and all countries of CARICOM achieved universal primary education. Such progress has not been without some negative consequences, a major one being the perennial challenge of evidence-based decision-making, data inadequacy and the need for more research.
Over the period 2017-2021, the UN Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework (MSDF) will guide the programme activities of the United Nations Agencies, Funds and Programmes in Barbados and the member States of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), as well as in Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Derived from the traditional United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), the multi-country approach reflects the acknowledgment that, in order to maximize development impact in the region, an integrated sustainable development approach requires addressing common and inter-related issues at both regional and national levels, in support of the SDGs.
In order to ensure effective engagement with the primary partners on research, evidence, measurements and data, clear and deliberate paths must be created to engage academia. This conference is therefore conceptualized as a significant opportunity to forge partnerships with the academic community of the Caribbean and contribute to the accumulation of data, research based policy and measures of development across the Caribbean society.