The island is the first country in the Caribbean to take part in the open data and open budget readiness assessment.

Saint Lucia is making headway in establishing open data systems

The World Bank made the observation recently, while assessing Saint Lucia’s open data readiness.

The island is the first country in the Caribbean to take part in the open data and open budget readiness assessment.

According to Senator Hon. Dr. James Fletcher, government is examining ways to make data more accessible to everyone.

“We are looking at the possibility of making data available in its raw format to members of the public. So not just the PDF lock files, [but also] access to excel spreadsheets on health data, and on education statistics, so that people can now manipulate the data and present it in reports," he said. "This data should not just be the preserve of government; it has to be the preserve of the public so that they can now make decisions. There are also economic opportunities that we are pursuing.”

However, Dr. Fletcher said there are important considerations when providing data to the public.

“There is some sensitive information that cannot be made available through open data, so things like people’s medical or criminal records will remain sacrosanct and will not be made available," he said.

Saint Lucia undertook an open data readiness assessment in partnership with the World Bank in June, 2014. The study included interviews with government officials and various sector representatives.