Sunyani: Dr Enock Katere, a lecturer at the College for Community Development (CCOD), a private technical university, has called on the government to invest and train public servants on dataset interpretation to improve the nation’s adaptive system for emergencies. This initiative, he believes, would also foster effective inter-agency collaborations in tackling economic shocks, public health crises, and climate threats.
According to Ghana News Agency, Dr Katere, who is also an organisational development specialist, emphasized the need to reimagine the public sector as a learning, thinking, and adaptive system rather than just a service provider. He highlighted the necessity for public servants to acquire skills in data interpretation to not only enhance adaptive systems but also to facilitate information flow across sectors, thereby institutionalizing decision-making processes.
Dr Katere advocated for a mindset that prioritizes foresight over hindsight and systems that empower leaders to act on insight rather than assumptions. He stressed that as a developing nation, it is crucial to avoid being “data-rich and insight-poor.” The nation, he pointed out, does not lack information, but rather the capacity and sometimes the will to transform that information into timely, strategic decisions.
He further explained that the gap between data and action is more than just a technical oversight; it is a governance deficit that costs the nation dearly. Despite having data collected across various sectors-such as reports, performance indicators, and monitoring forms-responses to emergencies or opportunities are often delayed and misaligned, relying heavily on anecdotal evidence.
Dr Katere pointed out that the governance architecture is built for predictability, not complexity, which traps the nation in cycles of reactivity. He cited urban flooding as a recurring issue, where despite having satellite imagery, hydrological data, and archived rainfall patterns, proactive urban flood management plans are rarely synthesized.
To address these challenges, Dr Katere called for a shift from static data storage to a dynamic decision intelligence approach. This new approach would model flood risks in real-time, simulate various response scenarios, and guide resource allocation for disasters, thereby enhancing the nation’s adaptive system capabilities.