Meet the Team
Good Governance Africa is made up of a diverse team of academics, advisors and experts in their respective professions. Meet them all here.Founder
GGA Global
Dr Ruth Kolevsohn
GGA Global
Dr Ruth Kolevsohn is Executive Director of Governance Programmes for Sub-Saharan Africa at Good Governance Africa (GGA), a member of the GGA Group Board, and Director of the Southern African Regional Office. She leads the development and delivery of governance programmes across GGA’s African footprint, spanning governance insights and analytics, accountability and anti-corruption, investment and economic development, peace and security, natural resource governance and climate change, and youth development and empowerment. Ruth also leads GGA’s Africa-wide advocacy and communications programme supporting the proposed International Anti-Corruption Court (IACCourt), working with governments, civil society, academia, youth, the private sector and international partners to strengthen Africa’s contribution to the emerging global anti-corruption architecture. She serves on the Africa Subcommittee for the establishment of the IACCourt and the Interim Executive Council of the African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption (AUABC) Non-State Actors Forum. With more than 30 years of experience spanning the public, private, academic and social sectors, Ruth specialises in translating research and evidence into practical strategies for institutional and social change. Her work encompasses strategic advocacy, stakeholder engagement, coalition building, social and behavioural change communication, programme development and thought leadership across diverse African contexts. She has led multi-award-winning teams and programmes focused on strengthening institutional integrity, public trust, citizen participation and accountable governance. Ruth holds a Doctor of Business Administration in Executive Leadership from the European Institute of Applied Science and Management in Prague, and is completing a PhD in Psychology at the University of Pretoria, where her research examines grassroots social representations of anti-corruption, accountability and trust in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research and professional work are united by a particular interest in how citizen experience, institutional reform and collective action can contribute to more accountable, inclusive and resilient societies.
Mashala Kwape
GGA Global
Mashala Kwape is Head of International Relations for Good Governance Africa. He is a senior executive with local and international experience, visionary leadership and management skills in strategic planning; building and maintaining partnerships; managing teams and stakeholders; and program design, development and management. Over the last 27 years, my focus has been on media for education development, use of technology in education and youth development in Sub Sahara Africa. I am passionate about transforming learning amongst children, youth and society in general.
Karam Singh
Author
Karam Singh is an experienced leader and manager with extensive and progressive experience in the national and international civil society, government, private sector, academia and philanthropy. He is passionate about access to justice, the realisation of rights and the fight against corruption. His areas of expertise include research, strategy and project planning and implementation, fundraising, investigations, anti-corruption programming and various aspects of public law. Karam is an admitted attorney in the state of New York and South Africa. He spent several years as a project specialist at the Special Investigating Unit before taking up various senior management roles, including Head of Research and Provincial Manager with the South African Human Rights Commission. He then spent some time in philanthropy with the Open Society Foundation South Africa (OSF-SA) as Programme Director, including spearheading the OSF-SA access to justice programme. After spending a short time in private legal practice, from 2019, Karam spent over five years at Corruption Watch, first as Head of Legal and Investigations and then as Executive Director. He has degrees from Brown University, Georgetown University Law Center, UCT and the University of Pretoria, where he received his LLM in Constitutional and Administrative Law. He has extensive research, writing and media experience and is a frequent media commentator on issues relating specifically to anti-corruption. As Head of Liaison and Advocacy, Karam leads GGA’s various engagements with the African Union and in support of GGA’s various thematic areas. He will also lead GGA’s anti-corruption advocacy and our initiative in support of the establishment of an International Anti-Corruption Court.
Chairmen
Deji Haastrup
Resource Curse Authors
Deji Haastrup GGA-SARO CHAIRMAN & GGA GLOBAL VICE CHAIRMAN Deji Haastrup is Chairman of the Southern Africa Regional Office (SARO) and the Global Vice Chairman of Good Governance Africa (GGA). GGA’s regional offices are in Accra, Ghana; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Lagos, Nigeria; and Johannesburg, South Africa. A 1988 graduate with a Master’s degree in Communication Arts from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, Deji Haastrup started his career as a broadcast journalist with Africa’s first television and radio station, WNTV/WNBS in Ibadan, Nigeria. He later joined the United States Information Agency, before serving as Public Relations Manager at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), a globally recognised non-profit research institution that generates agricultural innovations to meet Africa’s most pressing challenges of hunger, malnutrition, poverty, and natural resource degradation. In 1995, Haastrup joined Chevron, the international oil and gas company. During his illustrious career at Chevron, he served in many positions of increasing responsibility, including as Community Affairs Manager at the Nigeria-Mid Africa business unit; international liaison officer for the Latin America Business Unit, Caracas, Venezuela, and Senior Advisor for Corporate Responsibility at the Chevron headquarters in San Ramon, California, USA. After more than twenty years with Chevron, Deji Haastrup retired in 2016 as General Manager, Policy and Government Affairs, and established Strategic Communications Solutions (SCS), a Communications Consultancy providing advisory services, risk assessment, and stakeholder engagement for public and private sector organisations. Deji Haastrup enjoys reading, writing, urban renewal, architecture and travelling. He is the author of 4 books of non-fiction, the most is titled “The Art of Propaganda: Shaping Public Opinion and Putting Society at Risk”; Xarra Books, 2023. He lives in Cape Town, South Africa.
Mark Adogah
GGA Chairmen
Mr Mark Adogah was appointed Chairman GGA-Nigeria in 2021. Mark is a Director at Citibank Nigeria’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory (BCMA) business. He is responsible for driving and supervising Citi Nigeria’s strategy for multinational Branded Consumer Goods, Aviation and Oil Services clients. He has been involved in several landmark lending and financing transactions in the industry. Mark has over 23 years’ experience in the areas of financial statements audit and assurance, business advisory and corporate and investment banking. He started his career with Arthur Andersen in Nigeria (now KPMG Professional Services) and worked in the Corporate Bank of Zenith Bank Plc and the Corporate Finance desk of FCMB Capital Markets Limited before joining Citibank. He has been in a senior management role since joining Citibank as an Assistant General Manager in October 2008. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and The Chartered Institutes of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Mark holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting and a Master's degree focused in Finance and Investments from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Mark has extensive local and international training on leadership, negotiation, derivatives, risk management, advanced credit skills and other areas of accounting, finance and banking. He is happily married with children.
Joyce Agyeman Attafuah
Author
Joyce Agyeman Attafuah is a distinguished lawyer, Notary Public, entrepreneur and community leader with over 17 years of experience at the Ghana Bar. She is the Managing Solicitor of Ken Attafuah Law Place, where she provides legal advisory, courtroom advocacy, corporate secretarial services and leads teams serving both private and corporate clients across several practice areas, including commercial, corporate, land, family, criminal and administrative law She holds an LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution, a Barrister-at-Law qualification, and additional certifications in Corporate Governance, Risk and Compliance, Balanced Scorecard and ESG, among others. Joyce has an extensive record of public service, having served on the boards of Legal Aid Commission, Ghana Hostels Limited, BOST, KookooPa Company Ltd., JoyKen Platinum Company, and as a Council Member of the University for Development Studies. She is also ranked among Avance Media’s Top 100 Ghanaian Women Board Directors. She currently serves as the Board Chair of Good Governance Africa – West Africa (GGA-WARO), where she brings her strong leadership, professionalism, and commitment to governance excellence.
Prof Bahru Zwede
GGA Chairmen
Bahru Zewde, currently Emeritus Professor of History at Addis Ababa University, is Founding Fellow and founding Principal Vice President of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He was formerly Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University and Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies, a think tank based in Addis Ababa. He has also served as Vice President of the Association of African Historians and Resident Vice President of the sub-regional research network, Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), and as Editor of its journal, Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review. In addition to serving as Editor of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies for 15 years, he was member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of African History and founding Editor of the Africa Review of Books. He is the recipient of numerous awards and Fellowships, including ones from the British Academy, Japan Foundation, the Institute of Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin and Humboldt University. His major publications in English include: Bringing Africa Together: The Story of Ethiopian Airlines (1988); A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991 (2001); Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century (2002); Society, State and History: Selected Essays (2008); and The Quest for Socialist Utopia: The Ethiopian Student Movement c. 1960-1974 (2014). He has also served as a Consultant for a number of organizations, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, the African Union and African Child Policy Forum.
Executive Directors
Dr Ola Bello
GGA Executive Directors
Oladiran (Ola) Bello obtained both his MPhil and PhD degrees in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and also holds a First Class BSc degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He has worked for organisations including the United Nations (New York) and Management Systems International (Washington DC), Merchant International Group (London) and Arthur Andersen (later KPMG). Dr Ola Bello has more than 10 years of experience in research and policy advisory, including on governance and extractive sector reform; sustainable development; and international development cooperation (including in EU-Africa relations). He spent three years with FRIDE (Spain) managing a donor-funded programme on the EU’s role in managing fragility and resource governance in select African countries. In 2012-2015, he was Head, Governance of Africa’s Resource Programme (GARP) at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and also functioned as head of SAIIA’s Cape Town office. Ola is spearheading GGA's technical support to Nigerian reform, including delivering ethics training for senior Nigerian judicial officers and change-makers (2017-2019). He's also working to expand GGA's role as in-country resource centre for multilateral consultative missions to Nigeria's ministries and parastatals. These missions include the UNECA/AU mineral sector governance team.
Dr Ruth Kolevsohn
GGA Global
Dr Ruth Kolevsohn is Executive Director of Governance Programmes for Sub-Saharan Africa at Good Governance Africa (GGA), a member of the GGA Group Board, and Director of the Southern African Regional Office. She leads the development and delivery of governance programmes across GGA’s African footprint, spanning governance insights and analytics, accountability and anti-corruption, investment and economic development, peace and security, natural resource governance and climate change, and youth development and empowerment. Ruth also leads GGA’s Africa-wide advocacy and communications programme supporting the proposed International Anti-Corruption Court (IACCourt), working with governments, civil society, academia, youth, the private sector and international partners to strengthen Africa’s contribution to the emerging global anti-corruption architecture. She serves on the Africa Subcommittee for the establishment of the IACCourt and the Interim Executive Council of the African Union Advisory Board Against Corruption (AUABC) Non-State Actors Forum. With more than 30 years of experience spanning the public, private, academic and social sectors, Ruth specialises in translating research and evidence into practical strategies for institutional and social change. Her work encompasses strategic advocacy, stakeholder engagement, coalition building, social and behavioural change communication, programme development and thought leadership across diverse African contexts. She has led multi-award-winning teams and programmes focused on strengthening institutional integrity, public trust, citizen participation and accountable governance. Ruth holds a Doctor of Business Administration in Executive Leadership from the European Institute of Applied Science and Management in Prague, and is completing a PhD in Psychology at the University of Pretoria, where her research examines grassroots social representations of anti-corruption, accountability and trust in sub-Saharan Africa. Her research and professional work are united by a particular interest in how citizen experience, institutional reform and collective action can contribute to more accountable, inclusive and resilient societies.
Dr Zerihun Mohammed
GGA Executive Directors
Zerihun Mohammed holds a PhD from University of Cambridge in Human Geography. He accumulated extensive experience working for more than three decades at various academic, governmental and non-governmental organizations as expert, practitioner and researcher. As a practitioner, Zerihun worked for different local and international NGOs, including SOS-Sahel (UK) and ACORD (UK) in Ethiopia. He also thought at Hawassa University, Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources. Before joining GGA, Zerihun was working at Forum for Social Studies (FSS), a leading Think-tank in Ethiopia, as a Senior Researcher, where he published and edited a number of research works. Currently, Zerihun is serving as an Executive Director of Good Governance Africa-Eastern Africa Regional office at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Tina Asante-Apeatu
GGA Executive Directors
Tina Serwaa Asante-Apeatu is an accomplished governance and development expert with over 20 years of leadership experience advancing democratic accountability, institutional strengthening, and public sector reform in Ghana and West Africa. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Good Governance Africa – West Africa Regional Office (GGA-WARO), where she leads regional research, policy advocacy, strategy development, and stakeholder engagement. Tina has a distinguished record in organisational leadership, programme design, monitoring and evaluation, and governance innovation. She has worked extensively with governments, civil society, development partners, and research institutions to promote transparency, the rule of law, and citizen participation. She previously held senior roles with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), supporting governance programming, capacity building, and international convenings. As former National President of the Police Wives’ Association (POLWA), she successfully formalised the organisation and led nationwide women’s empowerment programmes. A multilingual professional (English, French, German, Twi, Ga), Tina brings strong cross-cultural communication, strategic insight, and high-level advisory experience to board engagements. Currently, she sits on the Governing Council of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition
Operations & PRogramme delivery
Gail Nel
GGA Office Admin
After completing a year at finishing school doing secretarial and accounting diplomas, and then working for her father’s medical aid organisation, Gail Nel spent two years in Los Angeles, California, performing typesetting and graphic design on two weekly Catholic Newspapers. Upon her return to SA, Gail worked for Douglas & Barry printing company where she ran the design studio, whilst completing her Marketing Diploma at the University of the Witwatersrand’s Business School. She then started her own small design studio, Le Projet, which she ran for eight years before being bought out by Young & Rubicam SA. She was MD of Wunderman Cato Johnson for five years before she gave birth to twin daughters, Ashleigh and Brittany. Gail then started a second design company, Two Fold Marketing, which she ran for 12 years, before joining Times Media, where she was marketing manager, working across The Sunday Times, Business Day, Financial Mail, Sowetan and Sunday World newspapers and online platforms for 10 years. Gail joined GGA in 2018 after five years as an independent marketing consultant, and was appointed Director of Operations in 2020.
GGA Horn of Africa
Prof Bahru Zwede
GGA Chairmen
Bahru Zewde, currently Emeritus Professor of History at Addis Ababa University, is Founding Fellow and founding Principal Vice President of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences and Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences. He was formerly Chair of the Department of History and Director of the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University and Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies, a think tank based in Addis Ababa. He has also served as Vice President of the Association of African Historians and Resident Vice President of the sub-regional research network, Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa (OSSREA), and as Editor of its journal, Eastern Africa Social Science Research Review. In addition to serving as Editor of the Journal of Ethiopian Studies for 15 years, he was member of the International Advisory Board of the Journal of African History and founding Editor of the Africa Review of Books. He is the recipient of numerous awards and Fellowships, including ones from the British Academy, Japan Foundation, the Institute of Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin and Humboldt University. His major publications in English include: Bringing Africa Together: The Story of Ethiopian Airlines (1988); A History of Modern Ethiopia 1855-1991 (2001); Pioneers of Change in Ethiopia: The Reformist Intellectuals of the Early Twentieth Century (2002); Society, State and History: Selected Essays (2008); and The Quest for Socialist Utopia: The Ethiopian Student Movement c. 1960-1974 (2014). He has also served as a Consultant for a number of organizations, including Carnegie Corporation of New York, the African Union and African Child Policy Forum.
Dr Zerihun Mohammed
GGA Executive Directors
Zerihun Mohammed holds a PhD from University of Cambridge in Human Geography. He accumulated extensive experience working for more than three decades at various academic, governmental and non-governmental organizations as expert, practitioner and researcher. As a practitioner, Zerihun worked for different local and international NGOs, including SOS-Sahel (UK) and ACORD (UK) in Ethiopia. He also thought at Hawassa University, Wondo Genet College of Forestry and Natural Resources. Before joining GGA, Zerihun was working at Forum for Social Studies (FSS), a leading Think-tank in Ethiopia, as a Senior Researcher, where he published and edited a number of research works. Currently, Zerihun is serving as an Executive Director of Good Governance Africa-Eastern Africa Regional office at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Asnake Kefale
Author
Asnake Kefale is an assistant professor of political science at Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. He has done extensive research on migration and livelihood issues. In 2015 he co-authored a book with Zerihun Mohammed, Ethiopian Labour Migration to the Gulf and South Africa, published by Forum for Social Studies, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Bethlhem Zewdu
Author
Bethlhem Zewdu is an Ethiopian young professional. She has been working in different positions as office manager, quality control and executive assistant manager. She obtained her Bachelors and MSc degrees from Addis Ababa University in Management and Quality Management and Organisational Excellence respectively.
Dr. Dereje Tesema
Author
Dereje Tesema holds a PhD in Social Work and Social Welfare Studies from Ghent University, Belgium, focusing on internal migration and displacement. With over 10 years of working with governmental and non-governmental organisations, he accumulated extensive expertise in research, project management and practices, in areas of migration, climate change and meaningful civic engagement. Working with research institutions such as the United Nations University-CRIS and Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), Dereje contributed to research projects and published research outputs. Before joining GGA-HoA, he was a lecturer and researcher at Jimma University, Addis Ababa, where he taught development sociology and spearheaded several community service initiatives. Currently, Dereje serves as an Associate Programme Officer at Good Governance Africa-Horn of Africa Regional Office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
GGA Nigeria
Dr Ola Bello
GGA Executive Directors
Oladiran (Ola) Bello obtained both his MPhil and PhD degrees in International Relations from the University of Cambridge and also holds a First Class BSc degree from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He has worked for organisations including the United Nations (New York) and Management Systems International (Washington DC), Merchant International Group (London) and Arthur Andersen (later KPMG). Dr Ola Bello has more than 10 years of experience in research and policy advisory, including on governance and extractive sector reform; sustainable development; and international development cooperation (including in EU-Africa relations). He spent three years with FRIDE (Spain) managing a donor-funded programme on the EU’s role in managing fragility and resource governance in select African countries. In 2012-2015, he was Head, Governance of Africa’s Resource Programme (GARP) at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and also functioned as head of SAIIA’s Cape Town office. Ola is spearheading GGA's technical support to Nigerian reform, including delivering ethics training for senior Nigerian judicial officers and change-makers (2017-2019). He's also working to expand GGA's role as in-country resource centre for multilateral consultative missions to Nigeria's ministries and parastatals. These missions include the UNECA/AU mineral sector governance team.
Fisayo Alo
Author
Fisayo Alo is a Senior Researcher at Good Governance Africa Nigeria where he coordinates and supports research efforts. Fisayo has fifteen years of experience working in the development consulting, research, quality control, and community engagement. His interests include citizen participation in governance, policy analysis, economic development, and sustainable community development. Fisayo holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration (University of Lagos), a Post Graduate Diploma (PDG) in Agricultural Extension and Rural Development (Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta), a Certificate in Ethical Circular Economy (Arizona State University), and a B Sc. degree in Microbiology from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). He has managed a number of development projects and agricultural value chain studies for International donor agencies, such as USAID, FCDO, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GTZ.
Eniayo Ibirogba
Author
Eniayo Ibirogba is a law graduate from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom. Before studying law he got a degree in international law and diplomacy from Babcock university, Ogun state, Nigeria. His core interests are policy advisory, community development and human rights.
Julia Bello-Schunemann
Author
Dr Julia Bello-Schünemann is a multilingual research consultant. She is versed in integrated forecasting across sectors (including demographics, infrastructure, economics, conflict and violence, etc.), trend and risk analysis, data analysis, policy advice for governments and international organisations. Her expertise straddles Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and the European Union. She possesses vast experience in project management, fundraising, strategic planning, multi-stakeholder consultations, training and facilitation. She is currently an Associate Senior Research Consultant with Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. She holds a PhD in International Relations from the Complutense University Madrid, Spain and an MA in Communication, Political Science and Economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich in Germany.
Mark Adogah
GGA Chairmen
Mr Mark Adogah was appointed Chairman GGA-Nigeria in 2021. Mark is a Director at Citibank Nigeria’s Banking, Capital Markets and Advisory (BCMA) business. He is responsible for driving and supervising Citi Nigeria’s strategy for multinational Branded Consumer Goods, Aviation and Oil Services clients. He has been involved in several landmark lending and financing transactions in the industry. Mark has over 23 years’ experience in the areas of financial statements audit and assurance, business advisory and corporate and investment banking. He started his career with Arthur Andersen in Nigeria (now KPMG Professional Services) and worked in the Corporate Bank of Zenith Bank Plc and the Corporate Finance desk of FCMB Capital Markets Limited before joining Citibank. He has been in a senior management role since joining Citibank as an Assistant General Manager in October 2008. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and The Chartered Institutes of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN). Mark holds a BSc (Hons) degree in Accounting and a Master's degree focused in Finance and Investments from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom. Mark has extensive local and international training on leadership, negotiation, derivatives, risk management, advanced credit skills and other areas of accounting, finance and banking. He is happily married with children.
Kabir Hassan
Author
Kabir Hassan is a researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Transport Planning and Policy from Lagos State University, Nigeria. His research focuses on sustainable transport development and planning, with a strong interest in policies that promote equitable and efficient mobility systems. Kabir is actively involved in community development work, especially youth capacity-building initiatives and youth civic engagements. He has been part of notable transport-related projects through his roles at the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) and TSL Metroline Limited, where he was involved in road transport network operations and survey analysis.
Lawal Asiata
Author
Lawal Asiata is currently the office manager and project coordinator for GGA Nigeria. She has worked as a librarian and personal assistant in both private and government parastatals. Asiata holds a bachelor's degree in Library, Archival and Information Studies from University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Her hobbies include reading and travelling.
Malik Samuel
Author
Malik Samuel is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. Before joining GGA, he was a researcher with the Institute for Security Studies, specialising in the Boko Haram conflict in the Lake Chad Basin Region. Malik also worked as a conflict researcher with Amnesty International Nigeria. He was also a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders field communications manager in Northeast Nigeria. Before that, he was an investigative journalist at the Abuja-based International Centre for Investigative Reporting. Malik holds a Master's degree in Conflict, Peace, and Security from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Adejumo Kabir Adeniyi
Author
Adejumo Kabir Adeniyi is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. He is an expert with many years of experience in community development work and governance accountability sector. Before joining GGA, Adejumo worked at Premium Times and HumAngle Media, two of Nigeria’s biggest newspapers specialising on conflict and accountability reporting. His work has featured on esteemed local and international platforms, including Zam magazine, El Pais, IJNet, Premium Times, HumAngle Media and TheCable among others. He is a 2019 recipient of the Diamond Awards for Media Excellence, a 2020 recipient of the Thomson Foundation Young Journalist Award in the United Kingdom, and a 2021 recipient of NAREP Oil and Gas Fellowship.
Mariam Hassan
Author
Mariam Hassan is a researcher at Good Governance Africa-Nigeria. She is a graduate of Public Health from Babcock University, Nigeria. Mariam has contributed to health interventions through her engagements at Action Health Incorporated, where she supported adolescent health programmes, and at the Youth Clinic of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where she gained hands-on experience in youth-centred healthcare services. She is passionate about creating positive change in communities through research and advocacy, and also supports capacity-building initiatives that specifically target women and young people.
GGA West Africa
Tina Asante-Apeatu
GGA Executive Directors
Tina Serwaa Asante-Apeatu is an accomplished governance and development expert with over 20 years of leadership experience advancing democratic accountability, institutional strengthening, and public sector reform in Ghana and West Africa. She currently serves as the Executive Director of Good Governance Africa – West Africa Regional Office (GGA-WARO), where she leads regional research, policy advocacy, strategy development, and stakeholder engagement. Tina has a distinguished record in organisational leadership, programme design, monitoring and evaluation, and governance innovation. She has worked extensively with governments, civil society, development partners, and research institutions to promote transparency, the rule of law, and citizen participation. She previously held senior roles with the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the African Evaluation Association (AfrEA), supporting governance programming, capacity building, and international convenings. As former National President of the Police Wives’ Association (POLWA), she successfully formalised the organisation and led nationwide women’s empowerment programmes. A multilingual professional (English, French, German, Twi, Ga), Tina brings strong cross-cultural communication, strategic insight, and high-level advisory experience to board engagements. Currently, she sits on the Governing Council of the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition
Gifty Obeng
Author
Gifty Obeng is a monitoring and evaluation specialist with over 19 years’ experience in various fields of work. With an international training background (Masters level) in sustainable environmental practices, Gifty specialises in designing programmes and projects that protect the environment and thus limit the negative environmental footprint of human activities. She has been at the forefront of advising agencies like the B-Bovid (agro-processing social enterprise) on sustainable agricultural practices and climate change adaptative measures for farming communities. Gifty’s commitment to the use of best planning practices in all initiatives she has supported stems from her training as a development planning professional at undergraduate level (see CV). A trained school teacher with more than 10 years’ experience, Gifty is also skilled in training and mobilising stakeholders with various needs, and in designing content to suit various categories of clients. Gifty currently occupies the position of Programmes, Monitoring and Evaluations Manager at the Good Governance Africa Centre, where she uses her strong professional training background in business administration (Big Data), Quick Books and ComCare to steer programmes and activities.
Edward Sarpong
Author
Edward is a development planning professional with over 10 years working experience in development cooperation, research and training. For six years, Edward worked as a technical development advisor working at all levels of the decentralised system in Ghana. At the local level, he has been directly involved in community mobilisations and engagements to document the needs of the people mostly in deprived districts. These engagements were further used to enrich national policy discourse and in the formulation of policies and programmes. Edward also coordinated interventions with the then 10 Regional Coordinating Councils (RCC) to support selected districts in the implementation of their development programmes. Over the last five years Edward has been engaged in trainings and research, working both in the private and non-governmental sectors. With a strong planning background both at the masters’ and undergraduate levels, Edward is a passionate advocate of inclusive planning and decision making, particularly on matters that could reduce poverty amongst marginalised segments of society. Edward also holds a practitioner certificate in organisational and systems development; a background that positively influences his engagement with stakeholders at all levels of society. Currently, Edward occupies the position of Senior Research Officer at the Good Governance Africa – West Africa Centre (see CV).
Joyce Agyeman Attafuah
Author
Joyce Agyeman Attafuah is a distinguished lawyer, Notary Public, entrepreneur and community leader with over 17 years of experience at the Ghana Bar. She is the Managing Solicitor of Ken Attafuah Law Place, where she provides legal advisory, courtroom advocacy, corporate secretarial services and leads teams serving both private and corporate clients across several practice areas, including commercial, corporate, land, family, criminal and administrative law She holds an LLM in Alternative Dispute Resolution, a Barrister-at-Law qualification, and additional certifications in Corporate Governance, Risk and Compliance, Balanced Scorecard and ESG, among others. Joyce has an extensive record of public service, having served on the boards of Legal Aid Commission, Ghana Hostels Limited, BOST, KookooPa Company Ltd., JoyKen Platinum Company, and as a Council Member of the University for Development Studies. She is also ranked among Avance Media’s Top 100 Ghanaian Women Board Directors. She currently serves as the Board Chair of Good Governance Africa – West Africa (GGA-WARO), where she brings her strong leadership, professionalism, and commitment to governance excellence.
