National Development Planning Commission
The National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in collaboration with United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Wednesday launched the National Statistics Assessment Survey Report in Accra.
The overall goal of the assessment was to determine the state of statistical development and propose ways to strengthen the national statistical system.
Briefing the media about the content of the report, Akosua Danquah Ntim Sekyere, Head of Public Relations at NDP said, the study obtained information from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Regional Coordinating Councils (RCCs), Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) as well as selected data users, including civil society organisations, research institutions, development partners and individuals.
“The areas covered include data production, analysis, storage, dissemination publication. The study also solicited information on training and capacity building,” she said.
According to Mrs. Sekyere, the key findings of the study indicated that data production was inadequate, adding that data was collected and compiled mainly from censuses, sample surveys and administrative sources, including civil registration.
She said in the last five years, a few MDAs (eight out of 45) and MMDAs (31 out of 134) conducted censuses, while three out of four MMDAs conducted sample surveys, compared to one out of four MDAs, adding that, most of these institutions failed to collect and compile administrative data.
Mrs Sekyere said the study also revealed that, there was limited accessibility and use of data from MMDAs, MDAs and RCCs, while users identified administrative bottlenecks and unwillingness of some staff of these public institutions to release data, as major constraint.
“Moreover, about 70 per cent of users observed that the quality of data produced by public institutions was poor,” she said.
Mrs Sekyere said lack of functional data storage systems had significally affected the ability of the statistical system to respond to the needs of users, adding that about 63 per cent of responding institutions do not have central database storage system.
“Emerging internal and external demands for reliable, relevant and timely data, call for strengthening the national statistics and monitoring systems,” she said.
Mrs Sekyere said the report recommended, among others, the need to institutionalise statistics production, adapting legal frameworks to reflect international standards and requirements, enhancing the capacity of statistical institutions, increasing financing in data production, and investing in ICT software and hardware infrastructure in statistics production and management.
By Lawrence Markwei and Lucy Abeduwaa Appiah
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