Overview

The SPC is an international organisation that provides technical assistance, policy advice, training and research services to all 22 Pacific Island countries and territories in areas such as health, human development, agriculture, forestry and fisheries. All of these areas are critical to the eight million people of the Pacific, who continue to face challenges from their remote locations and scarce resources, as well as new challenges from growing populations, decreasing food security and the effects of climate change.

SPC has served the people of the Pacific since 1947 and in that time has grown to become the largest developmental organisation in the Pacific with around 350 staff and offices in Noumea, New Caledonia, Suva, Fiji Islands, and Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.

Statistical Activities

The Statistics for Development Programme (SDP) of the Secretariat aims to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems and social and economic planning agencies to supply the data that the region’s policy makers and analysts need to support their work.

Their ‘core business’ is to provide technical assistance and training, partly through a professional attachment programme. There is a strong emphasis on helping Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) establish good data collection systems and the SDP also seeks to improve the quantity and quality of data, indicators and reports being published in the region. The availability and quality of PICT data will increase significantly over the next few years as SDP and its national partners undertake a range of data collection activities (e.g. censuses, demographic health surveys and household income and expenditure surveys).

Dissemination and utilisation of data has continued to improve through the Pacific Regional Information System (PRISM), which gives statistical offices the tools and skills to develop, publish and maintain their own internet websites containing key statistical indicators, statistical summaries, reports, concepts definitions and other documentation for the statistical indicators, and the Population Geographic Information System (PoPGIS), which provides an accessible and user-friendly interface for users of population and other socio-economic data and information.

Received August 2010