GIZ will strengthen partnership with actors towards Agenda 2030

Raphael Frerking, Programme Manager, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) Governance for Inclusive Development (GovID), says GIZ will strengthen partnership with actors within the data ecosystem to drive Agenda 2030.

He said the partnership would produce the needed statistics at the local level of governance where actions directly impacted the lives of citizens.

He was speaking on behalf of the GIZ Ghana Country Director at the official closing ceremony of the Agenda 2030 project, implemented by GIZ GmbH Ghana under the Support for Decentralisation Reforms (SfDR) programme, with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in Accra.

A statement copied to the Ghana News Agency by Madam Araba Mansa Pratt, Communications Officer (GovID), said the Agenda 2030 project was set up to improve data-based development planning for the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and other national and particularly, sub-national development priorities.

The SDGs provide a global framework for ensuring inclusive development and since data is at the heart of achieving this objective, the project has over the years collaborated with government and non-government organisations to provide readily available data in its lowest disaggregation to shed light on persons farthest left behind.

Frerking said the District Development Data Platform (DDDP) web-based platform is very useful in bridging local level data gaps that the commission has identified.

“The Agenda 2030 component and partners developed innovative data management tools. One such is the DDDP which was developed together with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD) and NDPC, to enhance the performance of local assemblies, including CSOs, he said.

Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, the Government Statistician, acknowledged GIZ’s collaboration with the Ghana Statistical Service, which led to the implementation of the first national multi-dimensional poverty index and piloting the use of Citizen-generated data to provide statistics on solid waste management and gender-based violence in Ghana.

Mr Alf Bremer, GIZ Internal Generated Funds Component Manager, mentioned in delivering the closing remarks that some work packages from the just-ended Agenda 2030 project, like the DDDP, would be integrated into the GovID programme.

The closing ceremony was attended by Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim; Government Statistician, Dr Addo-Yobo; the Director of Policy at the NDPC, Raphael Edu-Gyan, Acting Director of the Research, Statistics and Information Unit of MLGRD, among other dignitaries.