Ghana Is Adopting a Data-Driven Approach to Fighting Poverty
By Sigal Samuel
On a blistering hot day last week, a team of Ghanaians clambered out of vans into Agbogbloshie, a notoriously poor neighborhood in the capital city of Accra. Their eyes roamed over the countless items for sale in this area that is part slum, part scrap metal yard, part market: gas ovens and barbecues, hand saws and oversize spoons, roosters and vegetables and shoes.
But they hadn’t come to buy anything. They were there to hunt for data.
Ghana is preparing to conduct a census next March — this was a trial run. The people picking their way through the heaps of wares were enumerators, census takers who canvass assigned areas. They joined the locals in their small stalls and asked questions like, “Can you read and write?” and “Do you have access to a toilet?” It wasn’t an easy place to conduct an interview — nearby, men were burning electronic waste to extract the metal in it, adding to the heat and polluting the air.
Photo courtesy of Fairphone.
Source: Vox (link opens in a new window)