By Francis Ntow
Accra, March 15, GNA Ghana, through the second phase of the Strategic Sector Cooperation, is aiming to build a robust and comprehensive national data system to promote evidence-based planning and policy decision-making.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Statistics Denmark, and the Denmark Embassy in Ghana, have signed a three-year agreement (2024-2026) to make the production of the national statistics system achievable.
Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician, signed for Ghana, while Prof Tom Nørring and Mr Carsten Zangenberg signed for the Danish Embassy and Statistics Denmark, respectively.
The signing ceremony took place at the Marriot Hotel in Accra on Wednesday, March 13.
Through this collaboration, the country would leverage survey and administrative data efficiently to address existing data gaps through digitalisation, while ensuring a progress towards a greener statistic period.
Speaking at the ceremony, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, Government Statistician, stated that the project would enable the evaluation of administrative data by pulling all data sets together.
He said it had become necessary to reawaken the national data and statistic system to bridge the disconnection of data at various levels to engender a proper evaluation of government interventions and help in policy decision-making.
Prof Annim cited the example of the phase two of the Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ II), which the sector Minister had announced was to benefit some two million agricultural farmers to explain the essence of the national statistic system.
“If that two million does not translate into statistics that sits in our social register, we wouldn’t have any basis to evaluate it, and this is what administrative data does,” he said.
“So, once there’s a national intervention reaching out to a defined number of people, our definition of reawakening the national system is pulling all the datasets together,” he stated.
That, Prof Annim said, would ensure, for example that, “data on the two million people can be reconciled with people benefiting from other interventions such as School Feeding and the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP)”.
The Government Statistician also noted that the second phase of the project would focus on people-centred statistics with disaggregation and multiple indicators to measure the quality of life at all levels.
It would, therefore, help make statistics pro-poor, inclusive, and help in making better policy decisions to address environment, including climate change effects, and pandemic preparedness, he said.
He also stated that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as well as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) would be able to get a better working relationship with all players within the national statistical system.
Prof Tom Nørring, the Danish Ambassador to Ghana, said there were endless opportunities in integrating already existing administrative data across authorities and ministries by a national statistics bureau.
Mr Carsten Zangenberg, Head of Communication and Sales, Statistics Denmark, noted that the statistics produced through the partnership would help provide facts and reliable evidence for planning.
“We have to work together for the next few years because we need good decisions, which are gotten from data,” he said.
GNA