A Deputy Minister for Information, Pius Hadzide says the IMANI Centre for Policy and Education must improve the methodology used to assess the New Patriotic Party (NPP)’s 2016 manifesto and the promises delivered.

This according to him is because, while a research conducted by the think tank showed that the NPP was enjoying a 3% advantage over the NDC, the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) gave the party a 15% score over the opposition NDC.

Speaking to Joy News’ Evans Mensah, Mr. Hadzide said it was time for IMANI Ghana to move towards empirical data and carry out public surveys to know and understand the true representation of the people.

According to him, IMANI also had the tendency to go beyond the NPP’s manifesto and introduce statements and policies they believe can be classified under the party’s manifesto.

“The CDD-Ghana in a similar research used a different methodology, they went to the people of Ghana and interviewed the respondents and it was clear that the NPP had a 15% point advantage over the NDC as far as public confidence in either party’s capacity to deliver on their campaign promises is concerned,” he stressed.

The Deputy Information Minister also used the opportunity to laud IMANI Ghana for its work and service towards ensuring an accountable government.

IMANI’s Methodology.

IMANI Ghana used the content analysis and codification approach based on a 4-step procedure; Setting out the yardstick as the NPP’s 2016 manifesto, Identification of themes for formulating the framework, IMANI Manifesto Assessment Framework (IMMA), Scoring and aggregation,

Multiple Data Sources, National Budgets (main and mid-year) Annual Progress Reports, Parliamentary Hansards, Portals and Websites of Ministries, Departments and Agencies, News Articles, and Reports were all used.

Out of that methodology, empirical evidence from the development and political economy literature showed the relevance of the quality of governance and a resilient economy to the well-being of people.