New software tracks social indicators
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, today donated computers and special software to a number of agencies for use in monitoring the country’s progress on social issues. First created in 1994 by an N.G.O. in India, UNICEF has since adopted the ChildInfo computer program to monitor the situation of children worldwide. UNICEF Country Representative Nadya Vasquez and consultant Melva Johnson say Belizean technicians and analysts will find the programme a useful tool in their day-to-day work.
Nadya Vasquez, UNICEF Country Representative
“We are presenting today the software ChildInfo. ChildInfo is a database presentation software for the monitoring of the social indicators. With this software we want to follow or have a good monitoring of some of the national indicators related to international commitments that Belize assumed in the context of the Millennium Summit and the last Summit for Children in New York. We are donating several computers for the use of the software. But it’s not only the donation; it’s training and follow up for the next three years. Our interest is to strengthen the national capacity in the monitoring of the indicators and in the use of the software.”
Melva Johnson, UNICEF Consultant
“You can introduce any topic, any goal, any right that you would like to monitor over time and do the necessary analysis, monitoring, presentations and reports.”
Patrick Jones
“Who are the people who should make use of this software?”
Melva Johnson
“I think that it will be extremely useful for users of information. I think that a lot of times there is a lot of discussion, but the discussions are almost hypothetical because people don’t use enough information and statistics that’s available on Belize. Granted that a lot of the information we want is not available, but then there are information that we can access. Particularly in health and education there is a lot of information. So I think that anyone who uses and make reports and does analysis should be able to use the software.”
Today’s UNICEF donation, including training and hardware that will run the programme carries a price tag of twenty-five thousand U.S. dollars.
