Hon Dan Botwe, the Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (MLGDRD), has underscored the need for policies to be informed by data by all Ministries, Department, and Agencies (MDAs)as well as the private sector.
This he said is necessary because development primarily is for the benefit of the population and as such the dynamics of the population at different levels should be the basic considerations in any development planning decision-making.
He, therefore, called on all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to make budgetary allocations to build capacities in data management to ensure that policies and programmes implemented are data-driven.
Adding that, “this is even more critical because the MLGDRD) oversee the work of all the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), which are the basic units of planning and development in the country. “
The Minister made these remarks at a Policy Dialogue organised by the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) and partners in Accra; under the theme “Census Data for Policy Decision-Making and Sustainable Development”.
He urged MMDAs to make conscious efforts in searching for, and always using the correct data to inform their medium to long-term development planning activities.
The Dialogue brought together all relevant institutions together to think through how they can together bring this important vision to the front burner of our development planning discourse.
The Minister commended the Government Statistician and the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) and all partners for ensuring the successful conduct of the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) that has once again provided the nation with enormous data to assist with key indicators at the national and sub-national levels in order to measure the progress of all sectors of the Ghanaian economy.
He congratulated RIPS on the Institute’s 50th Anniversary and the idea to working together with their partners, Ghana Statistics Service (GSS), National Development Populations Commission (NDPC), National Population Council (NPC) and the MLGDRD to organise such an important Policy Dialogue around the need to bring to the fore the importance of data usage in all policy decisions in Ghana.
Source: MLGDRD Public Relations Unit