The Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD), in partnership with the Civil Society Platform on the Sustainable Development Goals, has led a nationwide consultative process with state and non-state actors targeted at harmonizing all relevant information on the Sustainable Development Goals in the country.
The move is to help the successful implementation of the SDGs through the availability of high quality, timely and reliable data from both state and civil society actors.
The processes have already been carried out in the northern belt, comprising Upper East, Upper West and Northern Regions, the middle belt made up of the Ashanti Region, Brong Ahafo, as well as the western belt, which comprised the Western and Central Regions. The Volta, Eastern and Greater Accra regions are yet to be engaged.
The Ghana Statistical Service is supporting in refining data among CSOs, and to have a common platform for all information related to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Speaking to Citi News, Research Officer at CDD Ghana, Mohammed Awal, noted that there is a wide array of information with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals scatted among CSOs that if collated, could provide useful information with progress or otherwise of the SDGs.
“…The problem has been with the standardization of the methodology used to collect them. For the data to be accepted and used by the platform on the SDGs, it must have passed the standardization test of the Ghana Statistical Service and that is what we are trying to have with these engagements”.
The Western Regional Statistician, Ernest Nyarko, bemoaned the practice where some CSOs conduct surveys “in two or three districts and come to a conclusion that makes it appear as though it’s a representation of the country. To address that, the Ghana Statistical Service is developing a standardization data collection formats for MMDAs and Civil Society Organizations, which will help with compiling and reporting information that will be acceptable internationally and used by all”.
The Sustainable Development Goals platform coordinator, Rikki Sig Hansen, noted that, for the SDGs to be achieved, critical partners must share information amongst themselves.
She said, “This enables all the actors to make informed decisions and evidence-based advocacy for stronger results. There is an extreme power in the data civil society organisations are holding, and this can help inform all development plans for the achievement of the SDGs.”
Civil society actors in the western and central regions at the end of the engagement, unanimously agreed to share individual data available on the SDGs, and expressed their readiness to work side by side in ensuring that the Sustainable Development Goals are achieved by 2030.
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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghana