Data Disclaimer/Notes for Ghanalinks.org Database

Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) Data:

The data entered in Ghanalinks covers all Ghana districts as reported by MOFA for the period 2008-2015, however because the district names used by MOFA for the data collection are different form the approved District Names of Ghana before 2012 and after 2012 some of the district values were excluded in order not to harm the funcitionality of Ghanalinks.

• Excluded districts for the period 2012 -2015 that can be found in the MOFA raw data but not in Ghanalinks are: Amansie East, Sekyere South, Afram Plains
• Excluded districts for the period 2008-2011 that can be found in the MOFA raw data but not in Ghanalinks are: Amansie East, Nkoranza, Agona, Gomoa, Upper Denkyira, Manya Krobo, Kpandai, Ketu, Nkwanta, Wassa West, Kasena Nankana,.
• Also district that are listed but for which data was not found in the MOFA data collection for the period 2008-2011 are: Bosome Freho, Atwima Kwanwoma, Mamprong Municipal, Offinso North, Sekyere Afram Plains, Dormaa East, Nkoranza North, Nkoranza South, Sunyani West, Agona East, Agona East Municipality, Agona West, Gomoa East, Gomoa West, Upper Denkyira West, Upper Denkyira East, Effutu Municipal, Akyemansa, Birim Central, Birim Municipal, Kwahu East, Kwahu North, Lower Manya, Upper Manya, Adentan, Ashaiman, Ga South, Ledzokuku-Krowor, Kpandai, Ketu North, Ketu South, Nkwanta North, Nkwanta South, Ellembelle, Prestea/Huni Valley, Sefwi Akontombra, Sekondi-Takoradi, Tarkwa Nsuaem, Kasena Nankana East, Kasena Nankana West, Lambussie-Karni.

Population Based Survey (PBS) Data

1. District level representation of the PBS related variables

Even though there are variable value at a district level, these values are not necessarily representatives of the whole district, the reason being the survey sample was designed for the representation of Savannah Ecological Zone (known as Zone of Influence) and RING (areas where there will be intervention within the ZOI) and non RING (areas where there will not be intervention used as a counter factual) zones.

2. Aggregated values of the variables of the Population Based Survey

The KM tools uses only simple average formulas to aggregate district variable values into regional values or other zone values recognized by the database system, therefore the values generated might slightly differ from the values reported in the Population Based Survey 2012.

Disclaimers for Geographical Locations:

1. Savannah Ecological Zone
Term used in the Ghanalinks.org Database includes 60 districts shown in the table below:

2. District Assembly Support (Agriculture & Nutrition)
Term used in the Ghanalinks.org Database includes 18 districts shown in the table below:

3. District Assembly Support (A)
Term used in the Ghanalinks.org Database includes 50 districts shown in the table below:

4. District Assembly Support (N)
Term used in the Ghanalinks.org Database includes 8 districts shown in the table below:

5.   Pre 2012 Version and Post 2012 Version of Districts

The districts of Ghana were re-organized in 1988/1989 in an attempt to decentralize the government and to combat the rampant corruption amongst officials. The reform of the late 1980s subdivided the regions of Ghana into 110 districts, where local district assemblies should deal with the local administration. By 2006, an additional 28 districts were created by splitting some of the original 110, bringing their number up to 138. In February 2008, there were more districts created and some were upgraded to municipal status. This brought the final number to 170 districts in Ghana.[1]Since then, a further 46 districts have been added since 28 June 2012 bringing the total to 216 districts. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Districts_of_Ghana)

The Ghanalinks.org Database has captured this change as the district data stretches as far as 2008. To capture the administrative division change to versions of locations accompanied by shapefiles have been created, one that shows the administrative division into districts as it is now for data from 2012 onwards and one that shows the administrative division as it was during 2008-2011. The mapping visualisations automatically call the administrative divisions available for the data based on the reporting year.

USAID’s Implementing Partners Reporting

1.    Indicator data by district as reported by implementing partners aggregated automatically by the database, might not identically correspond in all the cases with aggregated values as reported by the Implementing Partner, one of the reasons being the difference in the methodology of calculation of the aggregate. The database focuses on simple averages of district values to come up with an aggregated regional or beyond value, while implementing partners might use weighted averages such as the case of gross margin. Another reason for the mismatch could be that more than one project data are included in the aggregated indicator value.

2.     In the case of indicators 4.5.2_2, 4.5.2_5 4.5.1_24 the summation of the disaggregated values by “gender”, “technology type”, do not result in the absolute total value of the indicator because more than one of the dissagregators apply and are counted at the same time. The KM database has addressed these issues so that the aggregation at an indicator value returns the real absolute value of the indicator.

3.    For some data, a mismatch between the year of reporting and the correct administrative division is to be observed. In these cases the map represents the administrative division for which the data is reported.