The First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor led a ten member delegation from Parliament to a round table discussion on data driven policy making in Ghana.
He was accompanied by the Majority Leader, Hon Mahama Ayariga and his Deputy Hon Kweku Ricketts.
The round table discussion was hosted by the British High Commission.
In her welcoming remarks, British High Commissioner to Ghana, Harriet Thompson underscored the inextricable link between data, statistics and development and encouraged the continuous partnership between the UK and Ghana towards enhancing development outcomes through data driven and evidence-based policy making.
The Vice President, Prof. Naana jane Opoku-Agyemang spoke about the need for high data literacy among policy makers in Ghana,drawing on the correlations between data and policy driven interventions for the overall development of the country.
The First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor said Ghana is working with the Ghana Statistical Service to make data available for Members, not only inform but also to improve the quality of legislation.
Dr James Tucker, Deputy Director for International Partnerships at the UK Office of National Statistics, highlighted how data serves policy needs and pointed out how parliamentarians can benefit from data availability. Dr Tucker encouraged Ghana to learn from best practices on areas of data integrity and to leverage development partnerships to enable the country to benefit from the experiences of others.
Panelists included the government statistician Prof. Samuel Annim , Director at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research(ISSER), Prof. Peter Quartey at the University of Ghana.
Prof. Annim underscored the need for a structured relationship between the GSS and Parliament to ensure that policy makers use statistical data seamlessly and to rely on GSS data for homogeneity.
He also threw light on the data profiling endeavors of the GSS.
Prof Quartey drew attention to the challenges of using outdated data and called on policy makers to ensure that the data is not only accurate but also up to data.
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Kwabena Nyarko Abronoma
