Cape Coast, July 12, GNA - The University of Cape Coast (UCC) in collaboration with the University of Michigan and the University of Cape Town in the US and South Africa respectively, is training 60 people to acquire skills in data analysis for policy implication and direction in the country.

Participants of the 10-day demographic training workshop being organized by the Department of Population and Health of the UCC were drawn from the Ghana Statistical Services (GSS), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and the University of Ghana.

Others are the Dodowa Health Research Centre, the Komfo-Anokye Teaching Hospital's Medical Centre and the Kintampo Health Research Centre.

Professor Kofi Awusabo-Asare of the Department told newsmen at the opening of the workshop on Monday that seven facilitators and three lecturers from the Michigan and Cape Town Universities had volunteered to teach the participants to help them get the methods for analyzing data.

He said four more years into the deadline of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the country it would be prudent for data on the various MDG indicators to be analyzed to determine whether it could be achieved within the stipulated time.

Prof. Awusabo-Asare said data analysis would also enable the GSS to analyze information on the 2010 census as well as the others including the Ghana Living Standard and the Demographic Health Surveys for easy acquisition of data.

In an address read on her behalf the Vice Chancellor of UCC, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, said the collaboration between the UCC and its foreign counterparts was to capitalize on institutional and national resources to expand research opportunities for social scientists not only in Ghana but also the US and South Africa.

She said it would also enable the institutions network to share data, collaborate for research and training and also mentor young scholars to help prepare a new generation of scholars for science to serve their society.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang expressed gratitude to the UG and UCT for their immense support to the UCC and also the UNFPA for sponsoring staff of the GSS to participate in the workshop.