GSS Develops National Strategy For Statistics

THE GHANA Statistical Service (GSS) has begun to build up a National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) that would serve the institutional and statistical capacity needs of each data producing institutions that form part of the national statistical system.

The strategic plan to bring together all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) will be launched by March 2008, according to the Government Statistician, Dr. Grace Bediako, who spoke to CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE in the midst of this year's Statistics Week Celebration launch.

To be funded by the African Development Bank, the development of the NSDS would be reviewed by the United Nations Development Plan (UNDP).

CITY & BUSINESS GUIDE gathers that various consultations at the regional levels, along with participation of district planners and statisticians, would be involved in the plan.

All over the world, statistics are used to measure indices such as inflation and gross domestic product, which help to determine the health of the economy.

Dr. Bediako intimated that the plan would help to consolidate the gains and as well integrate the MDAs to support each other.

Meanwhile, this year's Statistics Week has been designed with three main goals and is expected to help identify ways of enhancing the effectiveness and performance of national statistics.

The week, which began yesterday, will further the agenda of the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS II) as several renowned experts will be sharing their views on what the issues are and how to consolidate the agenda.

With support from the World Bank and the UNDP, a website will be launched by the GSS today. Dubbed www.STATSGHANA.GOV.GH it will serve as a medium of data dissemination.

In addition, the GhanaInfo database development, a facility which is aimed at providing access to all other GSS-produced micro-data sets, will be demonstrated.

These programmes, according to the Government Statistician, will go a long way to ease access to statistics and increase data availability, especially to user-defined statistics and indicators.

By Charles Nixon Yeboah