AUTHORIZED STATEMENTS BY DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO ON APPROVAL OF THE MEASURE CREATING PUERTO RICO'S OPEN DATA LAW

We thank the Puerto Rico Senate for the approval of Senate Bill 236, which to create the Puerto Rico Open Data Act. In its original version, the measure was drafted by researchers from the Institute and was later endorsed by the Institute's Board of Directors last year. The implementation of this Act does not cost the public purse an additional penny and, for the first time, mandates specific proactive data disclosure actions, which are essential elements of a culture of openness as a government custom (open by default). For example, for the first time, the publication of data in open computer-readable formats is mandated, one of the elements that gave Puerto Rico the most difficulty the last time Open Knowledge International evaluated the opening of our databases.

The amendments incorporated by the Senate Governance Committee address core aspects of the measure that ultimately complement and strengthen the measure. For example, for the first time, publicly funded official travel reports will be released. This in itself is a more effective way to control official travel expenses than the administrative control schemes that all governments use.

At the same time, as in any measure, there are always specific issues that could be improved. We are looking forward to the consideration of this measure in the House of Representatives. We are aware of the commitment of [Speaker of the House, Hon. Carlos “Johnny” Méndez Núñez, and the president of the House Governance Committee, Hon. Jorge Navarro Suárez, with the issues of transparency and access to public data, so we are sure that the House will give high priority to this measure.

In short, the Open Data Act proposed by the Institute of Statistics is a cornerstone in achieving the cost-effective, agile and transparent Government that we all want.

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Only 22% of the women surveyed hold a supervisory position

This is according to the results of the study on the needs of working women, in which 13,283 people participated.

San Juan, Puerto Rico. December 6, 2023 - The Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics and the Office of the Women's Attorney presented the results of the study on the Needs of Working Women, a collaboration that involved the participation of 13,283 people surveyed. This joint effort aimed at identifying the needs and challenges of working women, basing the conclusions on empirical evidence and thus providing a basis for identifying possible solutions to the different situations faced by working women in Puerto Rico.

Under the slogan “We are all working women”, the electronic questionnaire was aimed at working women in different sectors, including the public and private sectors, housewives, caregivers, businesswomen and those who work independently. Participation was voluntary and anonymous. The topics addressed in the survey included the work situation, work environment, breastfeeding, motherhood, household structure and needs, quality of life, physical and emotional health.

From the results of the study, which is available by accessing https://estadisticas.pr/en/Necesidades-Mujer the following are highlighted:

Employment status:

• 95% of the women workers surveyed had one or more jobs.
• 38% worked in an agency or branch of government.
• 22% held supervisory positions.
• 44% indicated that they had not received guidance on the Affirmative Action Plan, followed by 36% who were not sure.

Breastfeeding:

• 47% indicated that their place of employment does not have a nursing room.
• 64% of the women who used the nursing room, provided by the employer, considered that the time offered was not adequate.

Maternity:

• 72% of the pregnant women surveyed indicated that the employer always provided them with flexibility to attend medical appointments and treat symptoms during pregnancy.

Structures and needs of the house and home:

• 47% of working women indicated that they were the legitimate owner and were still paying their mortgage on their homes.
• 57% had 1 to 2 sons or daughters.

Need for a caregiver:

• 1 in 3 (34%) expressed a need for a caregiver for their children, dependents or family members.

Quality of life, physical and emotional health:

• The majority indicated that they had a good level of emotional and physical health.
• 63% experience or have experienced a “double working day”.
• 51% indicated that painful menstruation disables them 1 to 2 days a month.

Gender-based violence:

• 34% reported having been a victim of workplace harassment.
• 24 percent reported having been a victim of domestic violence.
• 1 in 4 (24%) experienced gender discrimination.

Socio-demographic characteristics:

• Forty-six percent were 50 years of age or older.
• 73% had reached an academic level of baccalaureate and/or master's degree.
• 70% had a household income equal to or less than $41,500 per year.

“I am grateful to the thousands of women who participated in this important study. Its detailed input will allow us to take action and create initiatives aimed at companies and employers so that they can improve and reinforce the areas of greatest need. In our office, we continue to be in the best position to help women and ensure that their rights are fulfilled in the personal and work environment,” said the acting attorney, Madeline Bermudez.

“The data collected in this study are essential to help us understand the realities that women face in the workplace. Statistical objectivity is essential for the progress of our society, and these data are a valuable tool for evidence-based decision-making. This information could help to effectively understand the specific needs of working women, thus contributing to the construction of more equitable and just working environments,” said Dr. Orville M. Disdier Flores, Executive Director of the Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics.

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PRESS RELEASE
DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

April 25, 2018

INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ORDERS PUBLICATION OF MORTALITY DATA

The decision of the Board of Directors paves the way for greater transparency to save lives after future hurricanes in Puerto Rico and supports ongoing efforts to review the number of deaths as a result of Hurricane Maria.

The Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico (Institute) announced today the approval of a series of methodological standards that must be used to measure the number of fatalities from future natural disasters in Puerto Rico, as well as to produce final estimates of the number of deaths as a result of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, a process that still remains incomplete today.

The methodological standards approved by the Institute's Board of Directors include: (1) the need to conduct a case-level epidemiological study to comprehensively measure the number of fatalities from any natural disaster, (2) the sources of information that should be used for this type of epidemiological study, (3) the criteria that will be used to attribute a specific death to a natural disaster, and (4) the set of mortality data that must be published online and updated daily.

The rules were approved in the Resolution No. 2018-03 of the Institute's Board approved this week. The Resolution also orders PRIS staff to take all necessary actions permitted under the Institute Enabling Act to ensure that these methodological standards are adopted and implemented by the Government of Puerto Rico.

For example, under the Resolution No. 2018-03, PRIS expert staff and financial resources are available to ensure that an exhaustive case-level epidemiological study is carried out to complete the review of the number of fatalities from Hurricane Maria. In addition, the Resolution requires that any epidemiological study of cases of disaster-related mortality in Puerto Rico be able to take advantage of information from the following sources: death certificates, medical records, forensic pathology files and the testimony of family members.

In addition, the Resolution adopts the criteria and classification structure developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) for the attribution of a specific death to a natural disaster. These criteria are described in the Reference guide for the certification of deaths in the event of a natural, human-induced or chemical/radioactive disaster.

Finally, the Resolution describes the specific data fields that must be published and updated daily for each death on the Puerto Rico Open Data Portal:
https://data.pr.gov/. To do this, the Institute will use its authority, which includes powers such as subpoena, to request the necessary set of data from the Puerto Rico Health Department on a daily basis. The Institute will also be available to train staff from the Puerto Rico Department of Health, so that they can upload the necessary data sets themselves.

“As the next hurricane season approaches, we must work to ensure that Puerto Rico's data infrastructure is better prepared to inform our citizens and the world about conditions in Puerto Rico. In the case of mortality, allowing people on the other side of the world to see our latest death records allows scientists around the world to analyze our data, even when there is no electricity or Internet in Puerto Rico, to identify patterns that can save lives in a timely manner. We owe it to the hundreds, if not the thousands, of people who died as a result of Hurricane Maria, so that we never allow this to happen again,” said Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, executive director of the Institute.

Currently, the Puerto Rico Department of Public Safety attributes only 64 deaths to Hurricane Maria. In December, after several independent researchers discovered that the number of fatalities from Hurricane Maria could be more than a thousand, the Government of Puerto Rico ordered a review of Maria's death toll and stopped providing the public with monthly mortality totals.

The Resolution of the Institute's Board explicitly recognizes that in the 3 months following the passage of hurricanes Irma and María over Puerto Rico, there were higher-than-average deaths in Puerto Rico, amounting to more than a thousand, and that this increase in deaths is probably related to the passage of hurricanes Irma and María over Puerto Rico. The resolution also aims to support the work of a group of independent researchers from George Washington University who were hired by the Government of Puerto Rico to analyze various issues related to mortality after Hurricane Maria.

The Institute's Board had been carefully analyzing and considering the approval of this Resolution, after it was able to restart its work last month. Previously, he had not been able to meet, even before hurricanes Irma and María made landfall in Puerto Rico, due to a legal dispute that arose last summer, after the Governor tried to dismiss several members of the Institute's Board of Directors without due process. The dispute was finally resolved in the first instance last month, following a court ruling that the Governor lacked authority to dismiss Board members without due process.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov/, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov/ and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr/.

In addition, as the leading entity of Puerto Rico's SDC, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey and official statistics on Puerto Rico's decennial population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov/. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Puerto Rico Institute of Statistics).

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/ (787) 688-0401

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