Accurate data is a vital part of effective planning and decision-making, especially when it concerns the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Voluntary National Reviews provide an effective way to detail how well individual countries are doing to achieve the targets of each of the goals, but depend on reliable data. In Ghana, great efforts have been made to improve the monitoring and evaluation techniques through training. 

Training the trainers

CLGF worked with a host of partners to organise workshops to 'train the trainers' at the end of February. The training model adopts a multiplier effect which increases the benefits of the training; Each newly trained officer goes on to share the lessons they have learned with a new audience, thus enabling even more, and better data collection.

The Training of Trainers workshops took place from 24 to 25 February in three zones across Ghana. Participants included regional statisticians, budget and planning officers. The aim of the workshops was to build the capacity of the selected regional officers in using administrative data collection templates and metadata; they will, in turn, take the lessons they have learned into over a hundred selected metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) and train the personnel in these institutions in how to use these tools.

The workshops will improve the monitoring and evaluation of the progress in achieving the SDGs – which respond to the needs and aspirations of citizens and communities, at both the national and sub-national level.

Specific objectives are described as:

• Enhancing the capacity of the regional statisticians, planning professionals and other key officers on data compilation to increase evidence-based decision making in selected MMDAs
• Increasing the capacity of regional statisticians and budget officers on the alignment of the SDGs budgets with the medium-term development plan
• Building the capacity of regions and MMDAs on metadata and how to compile consistent and comparable data over time.

Before these workshops, development partners and the institutions identified, collaborated to develop templates and metadata to guide the data collection processes at the local level, which worked well for administrative data, which can be gathered with ease locally.

Once staff in the selected MMDAs have been trained, they will practise the use of the templates and metadata by compiling administrative data in existence since 2015. This data will be validated in a national workshop and lessons learnt incorporated to improve the process. 

Model for partnership collaboration

The activity was, in itself, a model for collaboration with the wide-ranging partnership including the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ), the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development (MLGDRD), the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the National Association of Local Authorities of Ghana (NALAG) as well as CLGF.

CLGF Project Officer Ms Joyce Ekuful said: "We are very pleased with the outcome of this project. Not only will we have more accurate data, but training the trainers is an excellent way to train a large number of people cost effectively."