Transcript
VILIAMI FIFITA: Tonga has committed to the Sustainable Development Goals which raised the goals form the Millennial eight goals to 17. There are also more targets, 169 and more than 200 indicators. We also merge it with some of the Pacific Initiatives and also our National Strategic Planning Framework. Out of this, we need to provide statistics to know where we are and to see our interventions and also policy changes which also have to be efficient and effective and one way to do that is to improve dissemination. We normally provide graphs and also data that comes in the form of the big reports and tables but the dissemination strategy that we are working on is just to make it more friendly. That comes in the form of a map, colourful maps that tells you a story and make a lot of information that can be portrayed, not in a long report but shows the results so we can make good informed decisions about interventions or policy changes by our decision makers. So the initiative in POPGIS3 is one of the developments that we have been working closely with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, where we are the first country in the Pacific. One of the big developments we have shifted towards is a shift from focusing on a national statistics organisation to a national statistical system. We need to co-ordinate and harmonise and also execute a comprehensive system whereby some of the line ministers within government and outside government have to work closely as to who is doing what and when.
KORO VAKA'UTA: So basically it seems that this will make information and data more accessible for the public and also easier to display for authorities like yourself?
VF: That's right. We owe people information. Whatever level they are they need to know exactly in a more friendly manner. Especially the decision makers, they need to have an informed decision about something, especially towards the marginalised and vulnerable groups here in the kingdom. We have to make sure our dissemination strategy is more friendly to the users and everyone in general.
KV: And this will help Tonga as well because the population is not distributed across Tonga so there are unique circumstances, this will also help in that regard?
VF: That's right. Exactly. That is spot on. Some of the people, they are not settling in one geographical area. Some of them are unevenly distributed. You need to know the pockets of people where they live. Using GPS, you can know people for evacuation purposes for example. You know people with disabilities for example, where they need assistance during an evacuation for any tsunami or any cyclone. So the information has to be in a format that is more conducive, not only for the general public but also for the decision makers to make informed decisions.
