Ghana: GSS promoting data documentation and dissemination (May 2014)

An ADP mission took place on May 5 - 6, 2014 in Ghana Statistics Service (GSS) Accra to take stock of past ADP activities and achievements at GSS, discuss their sustainability and find possibilities of ADP expansion on documenting administrative and vital registration data. GSS has been an ADP member since 2008. Two training workshops on microdata management and dissemination were organized in 2008 and 2012 and all available nationally representative surveys and censuses were documented and archived. An online national survey catalog (NADA) was established on the GSS website (http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/nada/index.php/catalog) and about forty-one surveys are available for public use.

The GSS mission includes compiling and documenting administrative data from other ministries. They also plan to disseminate thorough NADA collections. A half day demonstration and introductory session on ADP tools and guidelines were organized in GSS training on May 6. In total twenty participants from different sections of GSS as well as other line-ministries: Ministry of Education, Health, Agriculture and Registrar of Births and Deaths attended the session. Particularly, the ADP Program Officer highlighted on the distributed model of NADA that allows different data producers to manage their collections and also determine their data access policy. The new feature of NADA collection was appreciated by the participants. A meeting was also held among the key partners to extend NADA into the National Statistical System. Based on the discussion, the GSS will organize a data documentation workshop in September to document new surveys in GSS and administrative and vital registration data from line-ministries.

Furthermore, the GSS has presented a plan to internalize the data documentation and dissemination processes in GSS and discussed to act as an ADP support center for microdata management in the region.