Execute your duties beyond ISD’s mandate — Acting Chief Information Officer

The Acting Chief Information Officer, Mr David Owusu-Amoah, has urged officers of the Information Services Department (ISD) to go beyond the department’s mandate in executing their duties.

He said this at the opening of a two-day training programme on research methodology for the regional, metropolitan, municipal, and district information officers in the northern belt at Tamale last Monday.

The Information Services Department and the Ghana Statistical Service have agreed for the latter to give technical assistance to the former to conduct scientific and credible research that will help the government to make informed decisions.

The training workshop was, therefore, geared towards equipping officers with the relevant skills needed to gather and analyze empirical data to enable them to submit timely feedback to the government.

He noted that the core mandate of the ISD, which is to disseminate information and receive feedback, has faced several challenges over the years, adding that in contemporary media pluralism, it was incumbent to carry out some realignment to meet the trend.

He admonished the officers to make good use of the training to be able to add value to communication and also ensure that credible, valid and reliable data are gathered, processed, and provided to the government to enable it to make good decisions on behalf of the populace.

A former Director of Demographics of the Ghana Statistical Service, Mr Anthony Amuzu-Pharin, one of the lead resource persons took the officers through some research methodology topics such as concepts of data collection, understanding the modules of data, ethics and instruments of data collection Methods.

The Information officers received Samsung Tablets installed with an ISD Online App as well as Computer Assisted Personal Interview CSEntry Offline Application for data collection and gathering.