On September 25, 2025, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) of Saint Lucia launched the country’s National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) with an objective to modernise and strength the National Statistical System (NSS) within the period 2025 to 2030. The strategy is developed around seven strategic pillars including statistical governance and coordination, data quality and standardization, statistical capacity development, data access, use, and innovation, resource mobilisation and sustainability, outreach, sensitisation, and communication, and monitoring, evaluation, and implementation. The NSDS aims to transform how the country collects, analyses, and uses official statistics — providing critical insights to tackle major challenges, from crime to national development.
The CSO is the national authority responsible for the collection, analysis, and dissemination of official statistics in Saint Lucia. Its role is to provide accurate, timely, and relevant data to support evidence-based decision-making, policy formulation, and national development planning. The CSO is committed to the successful implementation of the NSDS.
The development of Saint Lucia’s NSDS followed a structured, phased approach aligned with Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) guidelines, emphasising broad-based stakeholder engagement. The NSDS was conceptualized in 2019 with support from Paris 21 and the World Bank and included audits, reviews, and assessments of the NSS. In June 2025, during a stakeholder engagement on the development of NSDS, Director of Statistics, Sean Mathurin, emphasized the importance of the NSDS process, stating, “The NSDS is a foundational and strategic initiative that will provide Saint Lucia and its Central Statistical Office (CSO) with a costed action plan and comprehensive framework to produce and compile the data required to meet the country’s data requirements over the next five years. The development, and ultimately the implementation, of Saint Lucia’s NSDS is both critical and timely, particularly in light of the current and emerging challenges affecting the production of official statistics.”
During the launch of the NSDS, Saint Lucia’s Deputy Director for Statistics, Richard Harris, emphasising the importance of the initiative noted that the strategy provides the country with an opportunity to maximize its resources, strengthen data systems, and use evidence-based insights to address pressing national challenges. “The National Strategy for the Development of Statistics grants us the opportunity to consolidate and leverage our prevailing resources—not just our data resources, but all our resources, human, AI, and otherwise,” he said. “It will allow us to compile data that will allow us to identify and observe historically hidden trends and associations in our administrative and survey data sets, fill in annoying data gaps, locate and integrate the missing pieces of the data puzzle, and gather evidence that in a very practical way can be used to resolve most of our collective challenges.”
Saint Lucia is also a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and the regional organisation has hailed Saint Lucia for devising the NSDS. CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Dr. Armstrong Alexis, participated in the launch of NSDS in Castries, Saint Lucia’s capital and hailed it as not just a national achievement, but a regional one that contributes to the broader goal of ensuring CARICOM remains resilient and responsive to the needs of the people.
“There is great value in this regional approach to statistical development, especially for regional integration and particularly in the pursuit of our shared priorities, for example, addressing the climate crisis, ensuring food and nutrition security and fostering digital growth and transformation,” the Deputy Secretary-General said. He further assured that CARICOM Secretariat would assist Saint Lucia in the full implementation of its NSDS, and in ensuring that it remains consistent with the CARICOM Regional Strategy for the Development of Statistics (RSDS) 2019-2030, a long-term framework to strengthen national and regional statistical systems, ensuring harmonised, high-quality, and timely data for policy, planning, and regional integration.
