OUTGOING PRESIDENT & BOARD CHAIR, 2022-2023
Associate Professor of Economics and Director, Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa
University of Ghana, Legon
Accra, Ghana
I am a Ghanaian woman economist who has held a teaching position at the Department of Economics, University of Ghana since 1989. In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I have held leadership positions at the University of Ghana. I was Vice Dean of the Faculty of Social Studies, Director of the Centre for Social Policy Studies and I am currently the co-Director of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa. In recent years I have researched and published in the area of gender and assets. My current research interests are in the areas of intra-household division of labour and soft skills and employment.
I am currently a member of the Board of the Ghana Statistical Service and a Commissioner of the National Development Planning Commission in Ghana. I gained some experience working with non-governmental organisations when I joined the Board of ActionAid Ghana in 2005 and later on became its chair.
I have been a member of IAFFE since 2010 and have had the opportunity to actively participate in the Association’s activities. IAFFE’s mission to further gender-aware and inclusive economic enquiry and policy analysis with the objective of enhancing the wellbeing of all resonates well with me.
I have served as a member of the IAFFE Board and was on the local organizing committee that hosted the IAFFE annual conference in Accra, Ghana in 2014. Together with Dzodzi Tsikata we have been able to obtain funding from the African Women’s Development Fund to support travel grants in 2017 and 2018. I am currently on the editorial board of Feminist Economics.
Vision/Priorities for IAFFE -- My vision is for IAFFE to have an expanded membership from the Global North and South that is tolerant of diversity and to be an organisation that promotes research collaboration among scholars. Collaboration among scholars will provide opportunities for mentorship of young scholars and for scholars interested in developing their technical skills for gender analysis. A focus of IAFFE is to educate economists, policy makers and the general public on feminist points of view in economics. This is particularly pertinent because of the prevalence of ignorance of the gender dimensions of policy and resistance to designing policy measures that are gender-sensitive.
-- July 2021