Commentary, News

Engaging marginalized groups in Ghana’s Population dynamics

By Christopher Asiedu

The International Community has been commemorating World Population on 11th July since 1989, to raise awareness on global population issues and their impacts on sustaining the world and future generations’ needs. The Day plays a pivotal role in bringing the international community’s attention to population dynamics and their effects on socio-economic advancement, environmental sustainability and individual well-being. It also serves as a platform for governments, organizations and individuals to share ideas and take action. This year’s observation dwells on the need to embrace the power of inclusive data towards a resilient and equitable future for all.

Data collection has played a crucial role in tracking the achievements of many global initiatives, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. The 2024 World Population Day offers countries, societies and policy makers the chance, not just to celebrate the improvement in information gathering and analysis, but also ask whether the right questions have been asked and data collection procedure or method is beyond reproach. The Cairo International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, emphasized putting people at the centre of development, coupled with empowerment of women. Since then, there have been significant progress in women’s access to reproductive care, reductions in maternal deaths and improvement in gender equality. One of the driving forces behind these progressive moves and achievements is data.

Much as data collection and analysis have facilitated the success of human development, it is argued that development can never be summed up by a single statistic, nor can human development be zeroed down to only data points. Experts are of the view that improvements in data collection have also brought to light the gaps and lapses in development, as research indicates, that most of the world’s most marginalized communities have been largely excluded from progress. Inequality in access to health, maternal mortality, gender violence, abuse of human rights and social injustice continue to grow within countries and between countries.

In some instances, there has been stagnation in some of the progress made in the health sector. The United Nations advocates that in an increasingly unpredictable world, the need for reliable and inclusive data has become more paramount and must be used as a tool to promote progress for all. The world-body recognizes that in a world of uncertainties and upheavals, the international community must achieve a peaceful and prosperous society, using evidence- based solutions and reliable inclusive data. The UN further advocates that data must be harnessed to respond to the needs of those who have been left behind in the world’s quest for rapid development. It warned against the misrepresentation or misuse of data in spite of the vast improvement in data collection and analysis. According to the UN, the needs of many people and communities are not being counted and accounted for, because the International Community is not prioritizing investments in population data systems.

There is therefore the necessity to make data collection safe for all people, in addition to working with the marginalized to ensure that they are represented in the development processes. The commemoration of this year’s World Population Day enjoins the International community to champion data collection that counts people as they are in all their complexities. On the backdrop of the World Population Day with Ghana’s commitment to data utilization, the country is expected to constantly review how it leverages on data to address the challenges in population dynamics. Ghana marked the day, by focusing on harnessing the potential of the 12 million youthful population, out of its more than 30 million total population, as the driving force to ensure an equitable and sustainable future of the country.

Data from the 2021 Population and Housing Census of Ghana indicates that the population from 35 years and below classified as youth constitutes a large chunk of the population. There is therefore the need to tap into this huge human resource for the benefit of the country. These 12 million youth have needs in education, technical and vocational training, reproductive health, employment and other essentials, which can transform the development of the country. Therefore, to create the quality of the human resource we need, it is very crucial to segregate the youth using data and to attend to their needs without lumping all of them together. We should be able to identify the various groups within the youthful age bracket in our quest to train, educate and in providing them with quality employment avenues for their personal progress and the total development of Ghana.

No youth must be left out in the data collection and analysis. It is observed that the failure to engage the marginalized groups can be very costly and result in waste of resources and loss of human capital development.

It is incumbent on Ghana to make good use of quality and relevant data, to properly manage its estimated 12 million population of the youth, to facilitate the sustainable socio-economic progress of the country.