The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), in partnership with Statistics Denmark, is organising a hackathon for university students aimed at raising awareness of the GSS StatsBank and promoting the use of census data for policy-relevant research.
Five tertiary institutions – namely the University of Ghana (UG), the University of Cape Coast (UCC), the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University for Development Studies (UDS) – have been selected to host the event.
So far, six teams have been selected for the UG hackathon – presenting them with unique opportunities for mentorship, collaboration and development of team-building skills.
In addition, the winning team from UG will compete with winners from other universities at the national hackathon scheduled for 5th to 6th October 2023.
A panel is responsible for shortlisting applicants to participate in the event, basing their selection on the following areas: relevant skills and experience of team members in data analysis, programming, and data visualisation; genuine interest in the hackathon’s theme; and a strong motivation to participate and learn from the experience and diversity of skills and backgrounds of different team members.
As part of the event, there will be an academic launch of the StatsBank that will involve a detailed introduction to the platform, highlighting its features and data availability to the university community and invited stakeholders.
The main objective of the launch is to raise awareness in the university community about the availability of census data in the StatsBank, and foster stronger cooperation between the GSS, academic institutions and key strategic institutions in industry, the public sector, civil society and the development partner community.
The Vice Chancellor of UG, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, will chair the programme together with other speakers: including the Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim; Director of the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS), Professor Ayaga A. Bawah; and the Deputy Ambassador for the Denmark Embassy, Vibeke Sandholm Pedersen.
At the launch, an awards ceremony will be held to crown the winning team of the hackathon.
About StatsBank
The GSS StatsBank is an online database for accessing disaggregated census statistics, which contains over 300 million unique statistics from the 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) reports and allows users to generate customised tables and maps at the national and sub-national levels at no cost.
Developing the StatsBank is part of GSS’ commitment to utilising innovative and user-friendly methods to disseminate findings from Ghana’s first fully-digital census and promote uptake of the data for decision-making.
