On average, annually, 40% of the population is at risk of being affected by a disaster in Ghana.
In 2023, 127,000 people were affected by a disaster, and most of them were flooding.
In October 2023, following unexpectedly heavy rainfall, Ghana’s Volta River Authority had to take a difficult decision to release excess water from the Akosombo Dam on 11 October 2023.
This resulted in the flooding of communities in nine districts along the Lower Volta River, and large displacements had been reported as a result.
Photo credit: Still from footage provided by NADMO
Following the flooding, we supported NADMO, Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation, with displacement estimates, as part of Data for Good Partnership.
During the crisis response, the local NADMO officers saw only half the expected number of people arriving in safe havens, and many leaving the affected area, but found it difficult to gather information on destinations from distressed families on the move.
In receiving districts, officers reported seeing arrivals but struggled to verify if they were displaced by the flooding, and in what numbers.
Photo credit: Still from footage provided by NADMO
Focussing on the medium and long-distance displacement of populations from flood-affected areas of the Lower Volta River, we showed, with our crisis mobility report, the scale of movements, and identified the destination districts.
Some of these districts were, as expected, neighbouring districts to the flooding, and upstream of the dam along the Volta river; but our estimates also indicated movement to an area around Techiman, some 400 km from the affected area, which was unexpected.
Indeed, much of the displacement tends to be to host communities where extended families are located. In addition, some of the affected persons are crop farmers and since their livelihoods were affected, they moved to locations where they could get affordable fertile land to continue their farming activities.
It's worth noting that the pattern of displacement from this event can also be indicative of future displacement, and can therefore inform disaster preparedness.
The data told us where some of the displaced persons had moved to.
— Kelly Kekely Degboe, Head of Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) & Information Technology (IT) at NADMO.
Recognising the value of the insights from the mobility report provided by Flowminder, GSS and Telecel Ghana, there have been several positive outcomes.
NADMO initially planned to act on the report with assessment and follow-up data gathering in receiving districts, but were not able to secure funding for this. NADMO has requested further data analysis on returns to identify whether displaced people have been returning to the flood zone after waters receded.
There is now a strong commitment to have mobility crisis information produced systematically, and integrated into NADMO decision-making around preparedness and response.
To this end, a protocol has been drafted between NADMO, GSS and Flowminder to help ensure that data can be produced, shared and used rapidly following a crisis event. All three parties are committed to maximising the value of the data both for preparedness and for response, and to sustain such data provision in future too.
Prior to the floods in October 2023, we had already created a data pipeline, delivered training and mentorship to GSS staff, and conducted various data analyses in support of crisis response during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We had also undertaken substantial work to develop the methods required for bias-adjusting mobility estimates from mobile phone data using census, phone and field survey data (obtained in 2022). This work is done so that the estimates we produce are representative of the whole population of Ghana, rather than of Telecel’s subscribers only.
Resource | Video
Ghana | Understanding how people move to better plan for and respond to disasters
In this video, hear from representatives from NADMO, Ghana's National Disaster Management Organisation, to discuss the value of mobile phone data for decision-making, and how they are using mobility information provided by the Data for Good partners, to better plan for and respond to disasters.
About the Data for Good partnership
The Data for Good partnership brings together Flowminder, Ghana Statistical Services (GSS) and Telecel Ghana (previously Vodafone Ghana) (since 2017).
Together, we use anonymised mobile operator data to strengthen data for humanitarian and development decision-making in the country. This collaboration is the first of its kind in Ghana, and one of the first in Africa, aimed at taking advantage of technology to transform the production of data and statistics.
