The Ghana Agricultural Production Survey (GAPS), a pilot being implemented by SRID and supported by GSSP, has made significant progress over the past year. Last month, SRID and GSSP invited a team to participate in an assessment to review the pilot survey, determine the potential for scaling it up to include more districts, and develop recommendations on how to proceed in 2012. The review team was co-chaired by a representative from the Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate (PPMED) at MoFA and a staff member of CIDA, representing the Agriculture Sector Working Group. Other stakeholders included in the team were the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP), the University of Ghana, the Human Resources Directorate at MoFA, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), SRID, and GSSP.
On December 14th and 15th, the review team visited the field, met with SRID staff and other stakeholders, reviewed documents, and analyzed various technical, organizational, and financial issues associated with the pilot. The team’s overall objective was to assess both the institutional and financial feasibility of scaling up the pilot survey and develop recommendations for how to proceed. The review team is compiling information from the 2 day review and will present its findings to a larger group of stakeholders for discussion in February.