 A three-day capacity building workshop in environmental statistics coordinated by the Central Statistical Office CSO brought together a wide cross-section of stakeholders from the public and private sectors for training in data collection. The workshop focused on environmental and climate change statistics and the production of a compilation of data with indicators for the sustainable development goals. For Stina-Wiggins, environmental statistician with the Regional Statistical Program at the Caricum Secretariat was one of the facilitators. We are here to provide technical assistance to the CSO in order to encourage them to produce an environmental and climate change statistics compendium. They have the first compendium that St. Lucia produced was since 2001, so we're very interested in ensuring that they produce more up-to-date statistics to provide this information for policy and decision makers. That is our ultimate aim to ensure that data is available on the environment and climate change conditions of St. Lucia. The workshop provided training to participants in filling data gaps to enable the production of the environmental statistical compendium and also to provide additional data on environmental and climate change statistics for Caricum and other regional entities and publications. You can go to that report and get information on biodiversity, population and households, forestry, agriculture, land use, and you can be able to make your, you know, see how St. Lucia has been doing in those aspects and be able to make decisions and see where we are. Surinam's experience in environmental and climate change statistics was a central feature of the workshop. Anjali Kisun Singh, an environmental statistician with the General Bureau of Statistics in Surinam, pointed to the over 20 years of experience Surinam has with consistently producing environmental and climate change statistics and the desire to share this experience with the rest of the region. And because of that experience we would like to share with St. Lucia because I know they have the data but maybe they just need the guidance, share with them our experience so that they can publish this year. So we're just trying to assist countries. She stressed the importance of data for effective, evidence-based decision making and monitoring. As a country we sign and ratified many conventions, many agreements, but to know if a country is doing well, if we're meeting our targets you need to have data, the same as the SEGs. You need to have data, you need to have a baseline until you need to have the data to know okay we're on our way, we will be able to meet a certain target and it's the same with environment stats. If you want to have good quality, good climate change policy, you need to have a baseline first to know if all the projects you have been doing did have a good impact. So data is important for good policy and for monitoring. Uranda Cesar, statistician with the Central Statistical Office, said this workshop is opportune as the CSO aims to publish the environmental and climate change statistics for St. Lucia this year, 2024. So we have brought together all different agencies, both internally, government agencies as well as the private sector. We have Wasco, Lucille and some other private sector agencies. So we're hoping that with all this information in one area that we can get the required data that we need to have this publication. The capacity building workshop was conducted from February 13 to 15, 2024. It was funded by CARICM under the 11th European Development Fund, strengthening the framework for CARICM integration and cooperation process program. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon reporting.