Demographic & health survey to support monitoring of SDGss starts in Ghana

Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Ghana Health Service and other partners have commenced the collection of Data on Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS) to help support the monitoring of 44 Sustainable and Development Goals (SDGs) in Ghana on Monday 17th October,2022.

The exercise is expected to last for 90 days which is made up of 37 teams, 37 supervisors, 37 male interviewers, 74 female interviewers and 74 biomarker technicians deployed nationwide.

The trained field officers would visit an estimated 18,540 households from which 13,457 women aged 15-49 (in all households) and 5,752 men aged 15-59 (in selected households) are targeted for the interviews.

“Additionally, children under 5 years in selected households would have their weight and height measured as well as tested for malaria using rapid tests. Salt testing for iodine concentration will also be carried out in the household”,

In a keynote address, the Government Statistician Prof. Samuel Kobina Annim highlighted on the unique benefits of the GDHS and the depth of disaggregated data that would be generated from the survey to support research, policy and planning in the health and adjacent sectors.

Prof. Annim therefore appealed to all selected households to cooperate with the field officers for a successful exercise.

The data collected would support the monitoring of 44 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets under SDGs 1 to 8, 10 and 16. Key indicators to be generated from the GDHS include total fertility rate, child marriage, use of family planning; antenatal and delivery care during pregnancy; attitudes towards wife beating; intimate partner violence, nutritional status; anaemia; domestic violence; risky sexual behaviour; vaccination coverage; usage of treated mosquito bed nets; and household water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Ghana has implemented six rounds of the GDHS (1988, 1993, 1998, 2003, 2008, and 2014) which has produced data on maternal and child health, and healthcare utilisation to support the monitoring of policies and programmes and the development of annual plans in the health sector.

The survey was launched on Thursday, 13th of October, 2022 by all the parties involved and chaired by Dr. Kofi Issah, Director of the Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service.

Source Eric Nii Sackey