GSS, Vodafone & Flowminder Foundation renew partnership agreement for Data for Good to enhance development planning

The Data for Good Partnership, a unique public-private partnership and not-for-pro t initiative to support evidence-based decision-making for the wellbeing of all in Ghana, has been renewed between Vodafone Ghana, the Flowminder Foundation, and support from Vodafone Foundation.

As 2023 begins, Ghana Statistical Service, Vodafone Ghana and the Flowminder Foundation are draw- statistics on the African continent. With this in mind, and with their objectives and milestones set for the year to come, the Data for Good project partners are taking this opportunity to publicly announce ber 2017 - with the signing of Phase 2 of the Data for Good Partnership Agreement which enables Vodafone Ghana, the Flowminder Foundation, and GSS to continue, and enhance their collaboration in using pseud- onymised and aggregated mobile operator data to estimate population distributions and trends of population movements across Ghana for development and humanitarian purposes.

The signing of a partnership agreement helps guide the partners and stakeholders in the goals and objectives that are to be pursued through the partnership. This partnership makes it possible to transform the production of o cial statistics, through the secure analysis of anonymised and aggregated Call Detail Records (CDR), a set of data routinely and automatically collected by the network operator for billing purposes.

This collaboration, which is the rst of its kind in Ghana, and one of the rst in Africa, is aimed at taking advantage of technology to drive evidence-based planning in the areas of health, disaster management and tra c management, among many others.

The Renewed Partnership Agreement will seek to achieve four broad goals:

(i.) Increased utilisation and usability of CDR data

(ii.) Enhanced capacity within the National Statistical System of Ghana to support the integration of mobile operator data into o cial statistics.

(iii.) Continuous access to Call Detail Records data, and

(iv.) Commitment to learning to enhance development planning nationally and across Africa.

Referring to the essence of this innovation, the Government Statistician, Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim, has noted: “Understanding changes in mobility patterns is important…. The work conducted to date, including the production of various analyses to understand mobility during the COVID-19 pandemic, shows the power of mobile opera tor data analytics, and is a good example of how it can bene t anyone through its integration into our national statistical system.”

Cathy Riley, Strategic Partnerships Director of Flowminder Founda tion, adds: “The Partnership aims to enhance the production of timely and relevant o cial statistics and indicators through the incorporation of aggregated, anonymised mobile phone data outputs into the National Statistical System. GSS, as its coordinator, will leverage those indicators to inform government operations, decision-making and policy formation for the well-being of all in Ghana, and may serve as a model of this approach to other countries in the region.

Alluding to the importance of the Data for Good Partnership Agreement, the Chief Executive O cer of Vodafone Ghana, Patricia Obo-Nai, says, “We are excited that this unique partnership is helping the government of Ghana estimate and monitor population movement for social good. The mobility insights from this project are indeed helping the country to better analyse and