Caribbean Energy Information System

A mission in April 1985 identified Jamaica as the regional centre for CEIS, with its headquarters located at the Scientific Research Council in Kingston, Jamaica.

In October 1985, the Government of Jamaica approached the Commonwealth Science Council (CSC), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for necessary institutional, financial and material support to initiate the system.

Jamaica, as the host country for the regional focal point, undertook another mission to:

   1. Brief national representatives on CEIS, and to secure an agreement with the various countries to participate in the network.
   2. Identify the local national institution and liaison officer/project coordinator for CEIS.
   3. Identify the infrastructural and training needs of the national focal points to enable their full participation in the CEIS network.

A mission consisting of three persons from Jamaica's Department of Science, Technology and Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Scientific Research Council, and Ministry of Mining, Energy and Tourism visited 60 institutions in 12 countries to interview and collect data in November-December 1986 to implement CEIS.

A questionnaire, designed to determine training and infrastructural needs, was administered by the mission, during discussions with personnel, in each institution. This approach was preferred to submitting the questionnaire beforehand, in order to get a first hand view of the information situation.

Besides background information, the questionnaire contained questions about the organization on the following items:

   1.Type and number of professional staff employed.

   2.Type and number of personnel required and employed by the computer section.

   3.Training courses which members of the information staff have attended over the past five years.

   4.Areas in which urgent training is required for effective participation in CEIS, and the number of staff members who would need to undergo this training.

On energy information, the questionnaire covered the following items:

   1. Whether the institution had an energy, economics and planning unit, a library or information unit. If yes, the type and number of personnel employed and required by these units.
   2. Whether the organization collects and processes any information on energy policy and planning, consumer informa­tion on energy, industrial energy information, management and conservation, scientific and technical information, environmental impacts, and appropriate technology. If yes, in what form—statistical tables, forms, bulletins, books, journals, reports, microforms, or others and from where—local or international sources.
   3. Whether the organization collects and processes information on new and renewable sources of energy. If yes, in what areas, in what form, and from where.
   4. Whether the organization is involved in energy research, and if so, in which areas.
   5. Who are the readers for whom the information is intended, and the number of requests received for energy information per month.
   6. Size of collection in various areas.
   7. Number of new documents added each year to the institute.
   8. Number of periodicals.
   9. Number of statistical reports on energy.
  10. Facilities offered—reading only, borrowing, copying, literature searches, etc.
  11. If no information/library facilities are offered, does the institute have any need for an energy information service?
Information was asked as to whether the following facilities were available at the organization:

   1. Access to computers.
   2. Energy database and, if yes, what type and size.
   3. What information products does the information gener— ate—bibliographies, directories, statistical tables, accession lists, others?
   4. Microfiche/printers.
   5. Communication links.
   6. A leased telephone line.
   7. A modem.
   8. Communications software.
   9. Whether any formal or informal inter-island information service for the delivery of information existed. If yes, what were the countries and the turnaround time for the delivery of information? Was this service satisfactory?
  10. Would the organization participate in CEIS? If no, why not? If yes, which organization was most suitable to function as the national focal point for CEIS? If selected as the national focal point, what were the necessary administrative steps to officially formalize the functioning of the organization in this capacity?

A system's investigation was undertaken through the questionnaire by indicating two situations. The first situation was:

    A client in your country wishes to dry 700 lb of ginger, for export, using a solar crop dryer. The person would like information on the financial and technical aspects of construction, operation and experiences of such equipment in the Caribbean. He would also like to have technical advice from persons and/or institutions at a cost, if necessary.

The respondents were asked to outline the steps they would take to satisfy this request under their existing system, and under the proposed CEIS system.

The second situation was:

    A regional/subregional institution, e.g. CARICOM, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is formulating a proposal for a more efficient petroleum supply system for the Caribbean region. Data are required on the sources, quantities and prices of crude oil and petroleum products which are imported annually, in each of the Caribbean countries, in order to carry out the study.

The respondents were asked to outline the steps they would take to satisfy this request under the existing and proposed systems.

The approach to establish the network was as follows:

   1.To first develop the regional focal point which was based at the Scientific Research Council in Kingston, Jamaica.
   2.To interact with the national focal points on a group basis. All, however, did not join the system at the same time. Initially, the network began its activities with a small number of national focal points and later expanded to 15 member countries. Over a period of time contributions and network participation of countries were varied—strong with some and weak with others.

In operation, the regional focal point only laid down the criteria for the selection of liaison officers, and the countries chose the persons. As a result, CEIS was able to get the participation and commitment of the member countries.

Since the regional focal point was hosted and administered within the information division of the Scientific Research Council (SRC), some internal organizational adjustments had to be introduced. For instance, the Project Manager had to report directly to the Executive Director of SRC (which was not the usual case), who had ultimate responsibility for SRC's role as a regional focal point. This change was necessary for effective and speedy decision-making on matters concerning the network.

The CEIS consisted of approximately 65 per cent energy specialists representing government agencies and 35 per cent information systems specialists. This combination helped the network to make pragmatic decisions regarding energy policies in the various countries as well as develop information gathering skills, which were of relevance to the energy scientists.