The implementation of the decentralization and local governance system by the Government of Ghana, has called for the need of effective utilization of data in order to allocate resources to places where it is most needed. Database Development and management has therefore become an integral part in every Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs ) in Ghana.
However, one challenge that faces most MMDAs is how to effectively utilize data in the provision of basic infrastructure such as quality water, hospitals and schools for the community.
Realizing this challenge, the Obuasi Municipal Assembly contracted Devt Plan Consult to organize and facilitate a two- day workshop on Database Development and Management for the Key staff and heads of Departments of the Assembly.
This post gives an overview of workshop topics treated; we hope the content would be educative and informative. Don’t forget to provide us with your comments and feedbacks; we would love to read from you, especially from the Participants.
What was the Objective of the Workshop?
The workshop was organized to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to appreciate, maintain, and utilize data management systems at their departments for more efficient and effective service delivery.
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| Group Picture with Participants |
Is database Management so Critical at the MMDAs?
Most MMDAs do not give much attention to the data collected by the Assembly; hence they do not know where to channel resources for the provision of basic infrastructure. However, database management is more than just developing a tool, it goes beyond that. It is more of developing a system that will enable the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to effectively manage data, because a better data management will improve the Assemblies’ ability to plan, make decisions, monitor, report and disseminate information.
What this post seeks to achieve is to share with you some of the information on database developing and management we discussed with the Obuasi Assembly in our two day workshop.
What is data?
It is important to distinguish between data and information as most people cannot differentiate between the two. Data are made of raw facts. Information is, however, data that have been processed and shaped in an immediately informative way.
For instance, when assessing the size of total education capitation grant payments required, you need to know the total enrolment. Thus, total enrollment is information for this scope. Again, to post trained teachers to where they are most needed, one needs to know where teacher shortages are. Teacher shortages are easily shown by high student-teacher ratios (STR), which compare enrollment and number of teachers – in this case the information needed is STR, and total enrolment is part of the data used to compute it.
The purpose of data and its collection therefore; is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, to pass information on to others. Primarily, data is collected to provide information regarding a specific topic
What Next?
Join us in our next article as we share with you discussion on Data Base Management Structure and the importance of Data at Metropolitan, Municipal,and District Assembly level. If you need to contact Devt Plan Consult; give us a call on 024 4666458 / 024 4694634/026 6598157 or walk into our office located at Plot Number 8A Block IX, Asafo- Dadiesoaba, opposite the offices of the registrar general’s department, Kumasi. Alternatively, you can drop as a mail at info@devtplanconsult.org
