By Edzorna Francis Mensah
Acting Head of the Civil Service, Dr. Evans Aggrey-Darkoh has asserted that accurate and credible data are essential for analyzing trends, making informed decisions, and assessing the success of public policies and programs.
According to him, success cannot be measured without well-defined indicators, timely and high-quality data the fact that, “statistics promote accountability in both the public and private sectors institutions and any government with access to quality and comprehensive data can respond to critical human needs, advance human capacities and institute good governance structures, and ensure equitable and inclusive growth”.
Dr. Aggrey-Darkoh who delivering a fraternal message at the national StatsBank Hackathon Awards ceremony on Thursday, 26th October, 2023 on the topic: Statistical data, research and policy in Accra charged policy-making institutions to draw on traditional and novel data sources to enable the full integration of statistics into decision-making to enhance the quality of public policies and programmes.
“In the development that we seek as a nation, there is a need for effective cooperation between the Ghana Statistical Service and all Public Sector institutions to produce more evidence-based policies and programmes for national development”, he said.
He stated unequivocally that research is the engine that drives problem identification and solutions as “it provides the evidence we need to understand the complex issues our societies encounter. This could be in sectors such as health, education, environmental sustainability, the economy, governance etc. It helps in asking the right questions and searching for answers that are grounded in facts rather than speculations and guess work”.
He however, revealed that, discussions are ongoing to deepen the relationship that the Civil Service has with the Ghana Statistical Service as well as institutions of higher learning amongst others to leverage on their respective strengths to enhance the utility that can be derived from harnessing the relationship between data and research to undergird public policies & programmes.
“It is therefore necessary that all stakeholders, including the ruling and policy elites, Civil Society Organisations, and researchers, come together to share strategic views on how we can help sustain national development through improved programmes or policy actions or make proposals that build on existing initiatives using data , statistics
And research as building blocks, he mentioned.
The top three participants received cash prizes in this order, Winner, Team Badwenba of University of Cape Coast, First run-up, Team Data Genesis from the University of Ghana, and Second run-up position goes to Team Robust Research from the University of Cape Coast. They received Ghȼ 20, 000, Ghȼ 15, 000 and Ghȼ 10, 000 respectively.
The GSS StatsBank is an online data repository enabling users to tap into disaggregated data from censuses and surveys. It currently has over 350 million statistics, including indicators from the 2021 Population and Housing Census and a comprehensive set of macro-economic indicators.
Ghana is the first African nation to offer such a comprehensive, locally hosted tool with census data.
GSS promised to expand the dataset on this platform to include other censuses and surveys in the coming months.
Beyond browsing, users can query specific data, generate advanced cross-tabulations, and export data in various formats or access the StatsBank via an API. By facilitating such seamless access to GSS data, The Service aimed to reshape graduate and research training while fostering data-driven policymaking.
One can access the StatsBank at: nttos://statsbank.statsghana.gov.gh/
About Hackathon
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in partnership with Statistics Denmark organized a hackathon for University Students.
The hackathons are being hosted by the University of Ghana, the University of Cape Coast, the University of Health and Allied Sciences, the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, and the University for Development Studies.
The hackathons aimed to raise awareness of the GSS StatsBank and to promote the use of census data for policy-relevant research.
The event was about innovation and exploration with unique opportunities for mentorship, collaboration, and team-building skills for students.
The top three teams from each university competed at the national hackathon which ran from 23rd to 25th October 2023.