Government must commit a significant amount to research and data collection as the country is currently not making good use of available data, Director at the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy, University of Cape Coast, Prof. Samuel Annim has said.
Speaking at the National Forum on Strengthening Data Production and Utilization in National Development, organized by the National Development Planning Committee(NDPC) in Accra, he said, the country is sleeping on data as little has been invested into its usage at the various ministries.
“The country should wake up as far as data conceptualization, usage, analysis and impact is concerned,†he stated.
He said, the commitment to research by the various ministries in 2015 and 2016 budget has gone down with Ghana spending only 0.38 percent on research and development as a proportion of its Gross Domestic Product(GDP).
Government he said should be prepared to roll out a data collection that would be funded by the national budget and not developmental partners.
“All the micro-surveys in the country have been funded by developing partners which is not a good practice. If a developing partner is funding Ghana’s standard of living survey, there is a tendency that, questions would be answered based on the wishes of the partner,†he explained.
“But a committed nation would invest a significant amount of the budget into research to help in its development,†he stressed.
Dr. Annim said, the Ministry with the highest proportion budget allocated for research currently, is Ministry of Finance with just over five percent with most of the ministries spending less than one percent on research.
The Ministry of Power, he disclosed, has less than one percent on research while Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources put a flat value of GHC50,000 to 100,000 on research which is a clear indication of the extent to which they are committed to research.
“We should appreciate data not by lip service but starting with government making data dissemination policy a government responsibility and following it up so we all live by data and let data speak to us as to what we do as a country,†he stated.
The forum which brought researches from various institutions across the country was aimed at giving the platform to think about how data can be utilized in a more extensive way.
It emphasized on thinking through the reuse and intensity of data available in the country and highlighting on what is missing in data availability and accessibility in Ghana.
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