The Solomon Islands National Statistics Office (SINSO), together with UNICEF, convened a one-day national stakeholder workshop on Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) on Wednesday 19th March in Honiara.
MICS is a standardized household survey tool which has become the largest source of statistically sound and internationally comparable estimates of indicators for monitoring the situation of children and their families.
Government Statistician, Samson Kanamoli, acknowledged SINSO for leading the planning stage of MICS on behalf of the Government while partnering with UNICEF and other key stakeholders.
Mr. Kanamoli said the Solomon Islands government, through SINSO, remains committed to its strong partnership with UNICEF to implement MICS to improve the social and economic livelihood of all Solomon Islanders.
“It is also essential that the national Government undertakes to include all our relevant stakeholders, including NGOs and faith-based organizations and the private sectors in the decision and delivery of activities for the achievement of the national priorities as identified in our national development strategy and medium-term development plans,” Mr. Kanamoli said.
“The national government will continue to utilize the official statistics that is collected, analyzed and disseminated by SINSO to support its policies and planning.”
The main objectives of MICS are: (i) Collect social development data on health, nutrition, education, child protection, water and sanitation, human capital and well-being of children, women and men; (ii) Build capacity of national partners in data collection, compilation, processing, analysis and reporting on the situation of children, women and men; and (iii) Provide decision makers with evidence on the situation of children’s and women’s rights and other vulnerable groups in the Solomon Islands.
“We are proud to be supporting Solomon Islands, with the country’s first-ever nationwide MICS,” said UNICEF’s Pacific Chief of Solomon Islands Field Office, Benjamin Grubb.
“We will work together to ensure that accurate data is available to assist with informed decision making by the government, key stakeholders, as well as development partners. This will provide critical support for children, their families and those who are most in need.”
Since 2018, when the Pacific Statistics Methods Board approved the MICS programme, it has been used in seven Pacific Island countries including Kiribati, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu and Nauru. MICS is currently underway in the Federated States of Micronesia.