Ghana Statistical Service trains Police officers on mortality statistics

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) under the auspices of the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative has conducted a two-day workshop on mortality statistics for officers of the Ghana Police Service and other stakeholders from the Greater Accra region in Winneba in the Central region.

The training is aimed towards building the capacity of personnel to accurately collect data on mortality resulting from road traffic, violent and external deaths.

The training is part of a series of activities being carried out under the Global Grants Program funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies under the Civil Registration and Vital Statistics arm of the Bloomberg Data for Health Initiative.

The GSS and its partners identified the training as timely and relevant for national and international development, particularly in the area of collecting quality data for measuring indicators for the global sustainable development goals.

It is expected that the training will help to equip police officers with the requisite skills to collect accurate statistics on road traffic, violent and external deaths to improve the quality of mortality statistics in the country.

Analysis of mortality statistics from Ghana’s civil registration and health systems gives an indication of the absence of statistics on the causes of death that are due to road traffic, violent and external causes.

Additionally, the current level of death registration is below internationally accepted standards and the quality of vital statistics generated is very low.