‘Data pivotal to national planning’
The need to incorporate population estimates and demographic information into both national and international development planning came up for discussion at a roundtable forum in Accra on socio-economic development last Wednesday.
The main discussants — Mr Philip Smith of the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID); Prof. Stephen Owusu-Korankye of the Regional Institute of Population Studies; Dr Evans Aggrey-Darko, Chief Director of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, and Mr Emmanuel Addo, Senior Policy Analyst, Office of the President — dwelt extensively on how pivotal data was to efficiencies in the planning decisions and service provision mandates of both the public and private sectors.
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The forum was organised by the Ghana Statistical Service and moderated by the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Ennim.
Demographic data
Dr Aggrey-Darko said populations were never static and grew or declined through fertility, mortality and migration.
That, he said, was why planners needed to study or make use of information on changes in the composition of population to plan for education, healthcare services and economic development projects.
He noted that population estimates and demographic information were very relevant to the national effort at development.
Demographic data, he said, was one source of reliable data that provided valuable insights into a community"s future infrastructure needs, resource allocation and demand for services.
"If we want to ensure proper targeting so development would actually address the critical needs of our people, then demographic data should be deployed effectively. Some of the demographic changes anticipated to take place as a result of population growth may also present opportunities to facilitate the financing and delivery of services such as health and education to accelerate economic growth and poverty reduction," he said.
Constitutional Provision
The Chief Director of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said it was against that background that Article 27 of the 1992 Constitution enjoined the government to maintain a population policy consistent with the aspirations and development needs of the country, adding that the adoption of population policies into programmess and projects must consistently respond to the needs of the people.
Dr Aggrey-Darko noted that no major policy could be formulated and implemented without reliable, valid, available and credible data.
Ministries, departments and agencies as well as metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs), he said, ought to rely on demographic information throughout the policy process.
According to him, population was no longer an exogenous variable in the planning process.
Importance of demographic data
Mr Addo, for his part, said demographic data, due to its importance, needed to be released in a timeous manner to guide development planning, as a delay in releasing it to those who needed it for planning could lead to inadequate planning.
Prof. Owusu-Korankye said those who used the data needed to use it within the remit of the methodological underpinnings of its production.
Mr Smith said development partners needed reliable demographic data to measure the country’s progress towards the country meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) and for development aid.