The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has organised a two-day training for media personnel and some Civil Society Organizations in Tamale aimed at equipping them with the requisite knowledge to advocate and disseminate issues of Multidimensional Poverty Index Reports.

This would enable the media and the CSOs to intensify their monitoring, accountability, and advocacy roles to ensure that society was shaped to bring the needed change and development.

Mr Emmanuel George Ossei, the Director at the Regional Offices Directorate of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in Accra addressing participants said the training was taking place currently in three other zones with the Northern region being the fourth zone.

He said it was important for the media and CSOs to understand the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) Reports and StatsBank to help propagate and disseminate information as well as hold duty bearers accountable to bring the needed development in the country.

Participants drawn from the Upper East, Upper West, North East, Savanna and Northern Regions were trained on how to access data on censuses, employment, education, and access to water among others from the GSS website.

Mr Ossei said the training was part of ongoing efforts to make disaggregated data available for decision-making, especially at the sub-national level, which the GSS had produced the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) reports for all 261 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs).

He said the regional dissemination workshops provided the opportunity to also train participants on the use of StatsBank, an online platform that allows users to access disaggregated statistics from censuses, surveys, and administrative data sources.

He indicated that based on the important role the Media and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) play in advocacy in the country, GSS in collaboration with GIZ organised the training for the selected media personnel and CSO representatives.

The training also centred on the National and District MPI results and introduction to StatsBank among others.

Mr Ossei said the power of the media in shaping society could not be overemphasized, which calls for the need for the media to help disseminate the MPI report.

He said poverty was not about individuals not having only money but many other indicators such as lacking education, water, health, and other social amenities, which formed part of the poverty index.

Some of the participants expressed appreciation to GSS and GIZ for the initiative and assured of a collaborative relationship to achieve the desired results.

Mr Braimah Sanjage, a CSO representative from the Upper East Region said it was important to always have independent bodies monitoring the progress of ongoing development projects in the localities to ensure quality work.

He urged participants to independently monitor the ongoing SOCO projects in their localities to ensure that donor funds were not misappropriated.