Building Disaster Anticipation Information into the Ghana Development and Poverty Mapping and Monitoring System.

The Centre for Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Services (CERSGIS), a self-supporting, no-profit organization within the University of Ghana is an implementing agency an European Union supported project for “Establishing Mapping and Monitoring System for Development Activities in Ghana (EMMSDAG)”. The current EDF-funding cycle of three years covers the “Rural Phase” of the EMMSDAG”. The goal of the Rural Phase of the EMMSDAG is an on-line multi-functional/multi-application ArcGIS-driven government-owned data sets on social infrastructure facilities for rural community development projects and impact monitoring and evaluation. Five frontline government institutions are the primary stakeholders of the EMMSDAG — Ministries of Finance and Economic Planning, Local Government and Rural Development, Project Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the Office of the President, National Development Planning Commission and House of Parliament. These are to be connected on-line through wide area network for direct use of the data resources of the EMMSDAG Laboratory at the CERSGIS. The project should facilitate widespread use (by government and nongovernmental organizations, donors, investors and the private sector in general) of the GIS-driven socio-economic databases to be sustainably maintained by CERSGIS. It will be the primary task of CERSGIS to assist potential and real users in defining profitable/practical uses of the data for problem-searching/defining and problem-solving. The National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) will be one of the expected users of the EMMSDAG’s data resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]