Two resolutions from the recent Joint Economic Management and Financial Accountability Committee meeting in Honolulu focus on the need for the Marshall Islands to improve its collection of data and to strengthen the link between data and budgeting.
JEMFAC is the committee that meets annually to oversee and approve the approximately $30 million in U.S. grant funding for the Marshall Islands under a Compact of Free Association.
Marshall Islands government Chief Secretary Casten Nemra said Thursday these ministries need to “get credible data so we can properly analyze (issues) and make decisions based on the data.”
Nemra said both the U.S. and the Marshall Islands recognized “the issue needs to be addressed.”
Poor quality data and low health and education indicators despite the second highest investment in the Pacific in these sectors led JEMFAC to call for improvements.
The Ministry of Health was directed to “undertake a systematic program to diagnose health data problems and discrepancies in the production of statistics by using technical assistance offered by the United Nations Population Fund.”
JEMFAC, which has three U.S. and two Marshall Islands representatives, advised the Ministry of Health to provide a report to its technical meeting early next year on “progress made to complete the diagnostic activity, interim recommendations and a tentative timetable and list of resources to implement solutions.”
This resolution follows problems being identified with Ministry of Health statistics, including the recall of the 2007 annual report when data discrepancies were pointed out by other agencies.
The JEMFAC resolution comments that “if the Office of Insular Affairs deems insufficient progress has been made, after appropriate consultations with the Ministry of Health, then JEMFAC may direct the Ministry of Health to undertake additional remedies at its August 2010 meeting.”
The Ministry of Education was directed to “contract with outside expertise to develop comprehensive technology plans, including standards for students, teachers and administrators, and budget and training schedules to meet those standards.”
Majuro-based Interior Department official Alan Fowler said JEMFAC “put more emphasis on getting statistical data” at this year’s annual meeting.
The Marshall Islands ministries “need data to make performance-based budgeting work,” Fowler said.
The U.S. government, through the Compact and federal grants, is funding more than 80 percent of the budgets of the Ministry of Education, which has more than $25 million this year, and the Ministry of Health, which is receiving over $20 million.
The aim, he said, is to get these ministries to produce the statistics themselves and to reduce reliance on outside consultants.
Nemra said the government’s planning office and other agencies have been making good use of an official statistics program at the University of the South Pacific campus in Majuro. “This is an investment and it takes time, but when it’s done, we have skills here,” Nemra said.
Planning Office Director Carl Hacker said there are 16 Marshallese currently enrolled and if government offices “want to push to improve their organization’s ability to handle performance budgeting, administrative statistics and data analysis, this is a way to develop long term and local sustainability.”
