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Statistician bemoans improper statistical data for
development
Cape Coast, Oct 29, Ghanadot/GNA - The Government
Statistician, Dr Grace Bediako, has said there was a need
for adequate statistical data for better management of
resources and decision-making to set proper development
targets.
She expressed concern that a lot of gaps and problems such
as the lack of effective collaboration and coordination were
hampering efforts at harmonizing the collation of the
relevant data to facilitate this.
Dr Bediako said for instance Ministries, Departments and
Agencies (MDAs) as well as the Metropolitan, Municipal and
District assemblies all had “slight differences” in the
definition of data and applied different codes and
statistics.
She said as a result, statistics available to users do not
reflect the methodology used, nor is there any transparency
and this had “brought about some confusion” in the field.
She was speaking at a day’s workshop organised by the Ghana
Statistical Service (GSS) to sensitize officials of Regional
Planning and Coordinating Units (RPCUs), representatives of
some media houses, NGOs and Civil Based Organisations (CBOs)
on two ‘strategic documents’, namely the “National (Ghana)
Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) and the
GSS Corporate Plan, in Cape Coast.
The NSDS is a sector-wide strategy that seeks to bring on
board all statistics producing MDAs and institutions under
the National Statistical System (NSS) with the GSS playing
an effective coordinating role.
The GSS Corporate Plan which will span four years
(2009-2013), would provide the administrative and management
base for the implementation of both documents.
The two documents are slated for finalization soon and the
sensitization workshops are being held nationwide to assure
users of improved statistical products, as the GSS engages
more partners in a coherent approach to statistical
production and dissemination, to among others, solicit
support and cooperation from both producers and users of
statistics with a view to enhancing statistics production.
Dr Bediako stressed the need to “organize ourselves well”
for the regular collation of the requisite data, adding that
the two documents would help to synchronize data collection
and reduce the number of ad hoc data collection activities
and called on the participants to make the requisite inputs
to help achieve the desired results.
Throwing light on the work of the GSS and the Electoral
Commission (EC), she explained that the GSS only reports on
“numbers” released by the EC in the course of its work, and
cannot in anyway “influence” such numbers.
Mr Kofi Agyeman-Duah, Head of Capacity Building Division of
the GSS, said there was a need to train more students in
statistics to enable the nation to meet the requirement of
the NSS in order to assist planners and not rely on
population census figures due to the irregularity of this
event.
This is because due to the lack of requisite human resources
and logistical support, the NSS is unable to provide a
significant proportion of the data required to monitor
development programmes like GPRS II and the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
Some pf the participants stressed the need for the GSS to
ensure that staff of the Service are posted to all districts
and other organisations to enhance data collection.
GNA
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