Stakeholders at a forum organized by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) in collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has admitted that the demand for statistics in the country is rising but resources allocated for conducting research is low.
The stakeholders’ forum held in Accra to find solutions to harmonizing the national data collection and utilization was on the theme: ‘Strengthening National Data Collection and Utilization’.
The stakeholders were of the view that more and more Ghanaians are demanding statistics on almost everything thing but not ready to commit resources for conducting research for these revelations.
According to them, this has made it impossible for the institutions responsible for churning out these findings to lag behind when it comes to doing their job.
The stakeholders were of the academia, statisticians, information technology expert, development managers, civil society organizations to student bodies mince no words to say this has accounted for people challenging the integrity of statistics churned by the institutions responsible for doing these jobs.
They noted that one of the major hurdles for the utilization of statistic in the country is ownership; most often the researches are capped somewhere and not accessible.
This; according to them; has accounted for the academia to cite research works conducted on Ghana to outside sources when there are institutions responsible for doing so.
They revealed that on common inflation figures one will hear the University of Ghana, Cape Coast University as well the Ghana Statistical service churning out different figures thereby compromising the integrity of the statistics.
It is in view of this, they called for the harmonization of some these statistics not to compromise its integrity.
They further urged the institutions to take a look at big data (internet) since it is the easiest the way of data gathering now.
Speaking at the forum; the country representative of the United Nations Development and planning (UNDP), Dr Evans Klock said the UN is encouraging more innovative ways of collecting data as of the Sustainable Development Goals.
She said data collection and usage in Ghana is gleaned and there is the need to bring together data collectors and users.
According to her, data availability is important because it is one of the important assets for accountability.
‘Civil Society Organizations can use the access to this information to demand their rights to improve their partnership with government’.
Anthony Amuzu of the Ghana Statistical Service said also reiterated that data utilization has become a crucial tool that drives development in the 21st century.
He said data is recent times is difficult to together because the lack of resources for the conduct of the research.
Source:Topfmonline.com
