Ghana’s policy actors have expressed their readiness to standardize evidence-use in policymaking to improve development outcomes.
Thus, they have called for a stronger collaboration among state institutions and agencies, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and academia to overcome the challenges and constraints in gathering, accessing, and using data in their work.
This comes after a two-day national multi-stakeholder forum organized by the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on institutionalizing evidence use in policy and practice.
The forum, held under the auspices of the Center’s Evidence for Development (E4D) project, sought to review existing initiatives that have adopted the use of evidence and data in policymaking, and also to explore opportunities and mechanisms to help in proposing a framework for multi-stakeholder collaboration to advance evidence use in practice.
The event brought together representatives from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), academics, local government officials, CSOs, and the E4D project partners.
The E4D is a pilot project initiated by CDD-Ghana to strengthen the capacity and incentives of policy actors to access and use relevant data and evidence to inform policy decision-making and program implementation to improve social development outcomes at the sub-national level in Ghana.
The project, piloted in three (3) districts, namely, Bolgatanga East in the Upper East Region, Dormaa East in the Bono Region, and Sagnarigu in the Northern Region, has significantly contributed to developing capacities, promoting networks and partnerships, and increasing evidence use in policy and practice.