Staff Profile - Urban Associates Limited

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Staff Profile

Local Consultants

Sylvester Gabianu (Mr.) – Urban Planner, M&E and Data Management Specialist

Sylvester Gabianu holds a Master in Local and Regional Development and BSc Planning and is a member of the Ghana Institute of Planner. He has 21 years-experience of working in development planning, strategy development and social research across Africa. He was instrumental in development of Old Accra Tourism Development Strategy which highlights the historical preservation of rich sites, historical building in the oldest part of Accra. He was also engaged in the task of publicizing and raising awareness of Old Accra among Ghanaians and international partners. A Team member of Accra Metropolitan Assembly/The Municipality of Amsterdam under a sister city relations, designed and instituted development organization for the implementation of the Old Accra 2015 Development Strategy (Old Accra Project). The Project is an inner city revitalization effort to harness tourism, and local economic development potential as well as improve the housing conditions through well engineered city development strategy for the traditional people of Accra. Although it is continuously being updated, the Old Accra 2015 Development Strategy was passed at the General Assembly of the AMA in August 2005 as a blue print for the revitalization of Old Accra (Ga mashie).

He was pivotal in designing Alternative Water Services Providers (AWSPs) Regulation Landscape Study in Sierra Leone which was commissioned by the Millennium Development Authority. He had been an consultant to KPMG-Ghana in supervising and monitory implementation of Growth and Employment Project (GEM) implemented by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Industry of Nigeria, and funded by the World Bank between 2016 to 2019. He also manages M&E data on behave of KPMG on the GEM Project.

Charles Yaw Oduro (PhD)– Principal Consultant (Urban Planner)

Dr. Charles Y. Oduro is an Urban Planner with about 22 years’ experience in development practice and academia. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Planning and Director of the SPRING Programme at the Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST). Before joining KNUST’s faculty in 2011, he was a Visiting Lecturer at Florida State University, USA, and a planning Consultant at Nkum Associates, an Accra-based consulting firm. His teaching and research interests include: urban growth and peri-urban development; urban sanitation, security and safety; monitoring & evaluation; and project management. He has extensive experience in consulting in Ghana and abroad. Charles holds: a Ph.D. in Urban & Regional Planning from The Florida State University; a M.Sc. in Development Planning and Management from University of Dortmund, Germany/ KNUST; and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Planning, also from KNUST. He is also a member of the Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP) and the SPRING International Association of Development Planners (SIADP).

Dr. Charles Y. Oduro is a Development Planner with 22 years’ experience in development practice. He has been a Lecturer at the Department of Planning, College of Art and Built Environment, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST) since September 2011. Before joining KNUST, he had previously worked as a Visiting Lecturer at the Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Florida State University, USA and as a Consultant at Nkum Associates, an Accra-based consulting firm. Currently, he also serves as an Associate/Consultant at The Urban Associates Ltd (TUAL). He has several years of experience in providing consultancy services both in Ghana and other African countries. His teaching and research interests include: urban growth and peri-urban development; urban sanitation, security and safety; monitoring & evaluation; and project management. Clients for whom he has offered consultancy services include government ministries and agencies, district assemblies, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donor agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private firms, including mining companies.

Charles holds: a Ph.D. in Urban & Regional Planning from The Florida State University, USA; a M.Sc. in Development Planning and Management from University of Dortmund, Germany/ KNUST, Kumasi; and a B.Sc. (Hons) in Planning, also from KNUST. He is a member of the Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP), the Project Management Institute (PMI) and SPRING International Association of Development Planners (SIADP).

Erika Mamley Osae – Managing Partner

Erika MamleyOsae is a Development Practitioner and Managing Partner of TUAL with 22 years’ experience in development practice both in local and international sectors engagement with civil society actors, local actors and the private sector. She has rich experience in training and capacity building, project and programme implementation, project and programme design; gender development and organizational systems development and change management processes.

Erika has undertaken several assignments with local public policy think tank IEA as a Legislative Research Assistant rising to a Program Officer; Ibis west Africa as a Programme Facilitator and implemented the urban component of the Public Participation in Local Governance programme; then sub-contractor for Emerging markets Group, UK in implementing their UN-Habitat Slum Upgrading Facility Programme in Ghana as their Project Country Coordinator; then becoming Country Advisor for the UN-Habitat SUF project and directly implementing, supervising and developing new programmes and Chief Executive Officer of a Local Finance Facility called Tema-Ashaiman Slum Upgrading Facility (TAMSUF) before partnering to set up TUAL as a Partner.

Erika has consulted for the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-RAP) on their knowledge base publications and anthology (Jan – April 2008); Faculty member for Kettering Foundations International workshop on Deliberative Democracy (July 2008); Consulted for NIMBA Community Service (NIMCOSS) (2003 – 2010); mentored and coached local community based organizations such as Ashaiman Women in Development and Progressive, Ashaiman Youth Coalition and Foundation for Youth Liberation.

She has a Master Degree in Local and Regional Development from the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University, The Hague, The Netherlands. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Geography and Resource Development with Philosophy from the University of Ghana, Legon, a Post-Graduate certificates in City managements strategies (2004); Human rights of women (1999); Deliberative democracy I & II (2003/2004); The World Bank Monitoring & Evaluation training on Social and Public Accountability using citizens report cards, etc (2003).

Erika has supported the conceptualization, development and implementation of the Ibis’s Good Governance and Human Rights Programme (GG&HR) in Ghana and provided OD support to Civil Society Organizations in the Central and Volta Regions of Ghana. She organized numerous training programmes for the youth in the Tema and Ashaiman Metropolis as well as undertaking change management processes for the staff of the Tema Municipality and partnering civil society organizations and community based organizations.

As a consultant to the UN-Habitat Slum Upgrading Facility project, she saw the implementation of the project, engaged with local federations of the urban poor in the two implementing cities namely Tema-Ashaiman and Sekondi-Takoradi to recruit and supervise experts such as architects, surveyors, quantity surveyors, project managers to construct the mixed use residential-commercial facility for the urban poor in Ashaiman and also construct a public place of convenience and a market for two communities in Sekondi-Takoradi metropolis. Furthermore, she developed business plans, negotiated with local banks for funding for the projects.

Thomas Ansre – Principal Consultant (Social Policy and Monitoring and Evaluation)

Mr. Thomas Ansre is the Chief Executive Officer of Evanto Resources Limited and is a consultant with over 28 years of experience working in various fields of endeavour. Between 1993 and 2002, he worked in the public sector with the National Development Planning Commission i.e. the Government of Ghana main development policy making organization as a Senior Development Planning Analyst. After 2002 he has served as a consultant on a two donor/government funded projects. Under the Alternative Employment Project of the National Institution Renewal Project (funded by the World Bank and the Department for International Development) he was contracted as the Monitoring and Evaluation consultant. His task during this project was to coordinate the activities of the institutions involved in the Alternative Employment Project, monitor employment options and preferences of sections of public sector employees laid off (outplaced), examine the extent to which outplaced staff were benefitting from training opportunities offered them and assess the impact of the programmes intervention on the beneficiaries .

Between 2004 and 2010 he was recruited as the Social Development Specialist for the Land Administration Project (LAP). He developed and operationalized the Ghana Land Administration Project’s (LAP) Social Development Component. Under the LAP 1, he had overall responsibility social policy development, the Small Grants Programme (SGP), stakeholder engagement, sensitization and information dissemination, gender strategy development and implementation, development of indicators, monitoring and evaluation and capacity building issues revolving around social issues. Currently he works as an Independent Consultant in the areas of Training, Baseline Studies, Monitoring and Evaluation, Agriculture, Social Development, Social Impact Assessment, Policy Analysis and Gender and Development. He has worked extensively in Ghana and in Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Burkina Faso.

Irene Susana Egyir (PhD) – Associate Consultant

Dr. Egyir is a Principal Consultant with the Urban Associates and Head of Department of Agro-economic Department of the University of Ghana. She holds PhD in Agriculture Economics from the University of Ghana. Aside her teaching schedule, he has been engaged in several research works within the agricultural sector in Ghana and abroad.

She has just finalised research assignment on agriculture and food security in Ghana to provide evidence on the effect of climate change on food security; measure of food security; factors of food security apart from climate change; measures of adaptive capacity and coping strategies, the role of indigenous and modern storage practices in coping with climate variability. She also led a team of the Urban Associates Consultants Limited in conduct survey of perception of youth, agribusiness firms, NGOs and government agencies of challenges and opportunities of engaging in enterprises in the agricultural value chain. In 2007, she assisted the Government of Ghana to develop a post-harvest tracking system in 22 crops, livestock and poultry. Measured the loss indices and monetary value loss has been helpful increasing food supply to the market.

Dr Egyir has several academic publication is to her credit. The following are few of the research works she has undertaking:

i. Design of Solar Drying Technology Equipment for Drying Food Consistent with Farmers’ Willingness to Pay: Evidence from Ghana Innovative Systems Design and Engineering, Vol 2, No 6, pp 13-38.

ii. "Assessing the factors of adoption of agrochemicals by plantain farmers in Ghana", Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Vol. 5 Iss: 1, pp.83 – 97

iii. Bio-pesticides in Ghana:Vegetable Farmers' Perception and Willingness to Pay” IUP Journal of Agricultural Economics. (7):17-32

iv. Fufu Flour processing in Ghana: What costs, returns and institutional support are expected to encourage young entrepreneurs. Ghana Journal of Agricultural Science. (42):157-168

v. Harvest and post-harvest baseline study. Ministry of Food and Agriculture, Accra, Ghana.

She led the TUAL Team in Establishing the Status of Post-Harvest Losses and Storage for Major Staple Crops in 11 African Countries.

Gloria Essilfie (PhD) – Associates Consultant

Dr Essilfie is a lecturer at the Department of Crop Science at the University of Ghana and a Consultant to TUAL. She holds PhD Degree from the University of California in surveillance and epidemiology study in fruits and vegetable processing.

She has been teaching student (Masters and undergraduate) in courses on Postharvest management specifically: Processing and Preservation of Agricultural Produce, Quality Assurance in Postharvest Technology and Food Product Development. She has provided technical support for Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), related to CAADP Pillar IV issues, and served as the principal liaison person for the SSA CP’s cross-site research support team (CRST) (participatory monitoring and evaluation, impact evaluation, agricultural innovations system diagnosis and facilitation, and data management).

In a short-term assignment, she assisted the Regional (Africa-wide) Food and Nutrition Officer in the implementation of the regional food and nutrition program for Africa. Specifically, she reviewed scientific documents and articles for the implementation of the food and nutrition program for Africa, and assisted in the preparation of the World Bank/FAO/Government of Ghana Food Safety Project. She was a member of TUAL Team in Establishing the Status of Post-Harvest Losses and Storage for Major Staple Crops in 11 African Countries.

Eric Quao (Ghana) – Finance and Banking Expert

Erica Quao is program management professional with extensive experience dedicated to project management, financial inclusion, MSME development, agribusiness development, microfinance, capacity development, data collection and analysis. Possess (10) plus years’ experience providing access to finance to MSMEs; access to skills and technical support to MSMEs including general mentorship program, business development services, capacity building, and advisory services. Possess (5) plus years’ of senior management experience spanning bilateral development organization, not-for-profit NGO, and financial institutions. Certified Credit Administrator (MSMEs); and Member - Business Advisory Service Providers Association of Ghana. Strengths:

· Excellent knowledge of project planning; implementation; monitoring and evaluation.

· Sound knowledge of stakeholder engagements, entrepreneurial eco systems and agribusinesses.

· Knowledge of delivery of technical assistance to smallholder farmers and small-scale rural enterprises.

· Strong analytical; facilitation; presentational; work ethics; report writing; editing; and proof-reading skills.

He had worked with the Central Bank of Ghana, HFC Bank (now Republic Bank) and Royal Bank as the Deputy Managing Director.

Frederick Amui Oblitey - Power Sector Regulator/Legal Specialist

Fred is an Electrical Engineer and holds Master of Laws (LL.M.) from University of California, Berkeley, School of Law. He has designed several of utility regulations frameworks as proposed. He currently Senior Regulatory Manager, Legal & Technical of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission of Ghana (PURC). He also holds BSc. Electrical/ Electronic Engineering; Bachelor of Laws- LLB, and a member of Ghana Bar Association. He is a member of the following professional institutes:

a. Ghana Institution of Engineers - M.Gh.I.E.

b. GhIE Professional Practice and Ethics Committee

c. Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters - MCILA, UK; and

d. Chartered Insurance Institute – CII, UK.

Herbert Djaba: Geodetic Engineer, GIS specialist, Photogrammetricst and GeoInformatics Engineer

Trained as a Geodetic Engineer, GIS specialist, Photogrammetricst and GeoInformatics Engineer, Mr. Djaba is a member of the Ghana Institution of Surveyor (834)s, and a Licensed Surveyor (294).

He has 21 years experiences in field geospatial field data collection, processing and mapping for Engineering, GIS, mining, Oil and Gas, Photogrammetry, Cadastral and Agriculture. Herbert has been a project manager on a lot of Boundary surveys (Wassa Amenfi ) as well engineering the design of databases (UMLIS) and their implementation. He have lots of experience in Geodetic Reference Systems, Datums and their application in to modern survey . Conversant with the Use of GeoMedia and ESRI desktop products and addition to few open sources applications.

Herbert holds M.Sc. Photogrammetry & Geo-Informatics, University of Stuttgart, Stuttgart Germany (2009) and BSC Geodetic Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana (1997).

Aside from these specialists specified in the ToR, TUAL considers an Utility Economist and Survey design specialist/data manager pivotal to the successful implementation of the assignment. We have offered reasons for this in out comments to the ToR in Tech 7. Accordingly, we are proposing the following additions to the Team:

Eric Kofi Obutey - Utility Economist

Eric is an Economist with extensive experience in the area of Public Utilities regulation as well as management consulting. He has been involved in various assignments ranging from the analysis of socio-economic impact of electricity and water tariff adjustments on various consumer groups in Ghana through to the design of a tariff structure for pricing both electricity and water. He was involved in a project on Sierra Leone’s Alternative Water Services Providers (AWSPs) Regulation Landscape Study a project funded by the Millennium Challenge Coordinating Unit (MCCU). As a management consultant, he has also been involved in performing diagnostic business reviews with specifics on debt analysis and restructuring, company reorganizations.

Eric holds an MSc. (Econ) in International Business, Energy and Petroleum from University of Aberdeen, Scotland, an MBA (Corporate Strategy and Economic Policy) from the Maastricht School of Management, as well as an MPhil (Econ) and BA (Econ) from the University of Ghana.

Ebenezer Kyei-Mensah - Institutional Capacity Building Specialist

Ebenezer Kye-Mensah is a Organization Development Expert and a member of International Organisation Development Association(IODA), Systems Dynamics Society(SDS). He holds Master of Arts in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and Post Graduate Diploma, Organisation Development. He has provided technical support to improve the capacity of the Government of Ghana, and its partners, to provide quality and comprehensive Health services using a coordinated and sustainable country-owned and led approach. He designed and rolled out a Quality Improvement Plan leading to integration of data use and evidenced based practices in health service delivery. He supervised placing of technical advisors to work side by side with government counterparts, strengthening their abilities to lead, coordinate, plan, monitor, and evaluate service delivery across all sites. He requirement involved designing new tools and technical guidance on Health Service Delivery and related curricula, identified and reduced gaps in the continuum of service delivery. Supervised the development of Standard Operating Procedures and a rapid Response Information System (CRIS) including District Health Information Management System (DHIMS) integration

He was engaged as a consultant for inclusive governance and citizen engagements in service delivery. The client of this assignment Ministry of Local Government and Rural development. He provided direct technical leadership in capacity development and leads capacity development approach with government and local service providers. Identifies, adopt and creates appropriate capacity and technical assessment tools that reflects local context and needs. Facilitated the development of City Communication Strategies and Service Delivery Charter resulting in setting up and operationalizing client service units. Trained and introduced members of the city Citizen Report Card Monitoring Teams on Data Gathering and Performance Tracking Tools. Facilitated the development of operations and management systems and governance structures for post construction management of municipal facilities. Designed and facilitated the roll-out of a nationwide technical training for Senior Municipal staff in Management of Urban Service Delivery.

Francis Kwabena Boachie - IT and Programming Expert

Francis Kwabena Boachie is a Specialist in Internet Protocol (IP) and Data Networks, and Design and Development of High Level and Low level Information and communication systems with support from different vendor IT platforms and system integration. Francis has managed ICT and IT services and delivery including providing policy and strategy formulation, implementation and consultancy service to medium and corporate institutions both in UK and Ghana. He was the Lead Consultant for the Audit of MiDA’s IT infrastructure Systems and Operational Status to the MCA Ghana Compact II Project Development Team. He review the IT infrastructure for MCA Ghana Compact II Project Development team. Worked with other key stakeholders to streamline the operation and support for minimum enterprise architecture to run the offices of the MCA team.

Since 2013, Francis has served as IT Specialist/Consultant to the University of Ghana Teaching Hospital Project Implementation Unit. He provides intermediary consulting services/advise for the PIU to the Israeli team for the IT systems deployment for this $200 Million US dollar state of the art teaching Hospital; managing correspondences with respect to the switching, server platform, storage and provision of internet to site as well as advising on the enterprise resource management systems for the teaching hospital.

Between March 2001 to September 2007, Francis worked with British Telecommunication plc (OneIT or BTexacT UK) as Senior Professional Engineer being the Technical specialist in IP and Design, Managing and Leading Technical development and IT solutions to Governmental and International Financial Institutions to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. These included the Department of Defence national Network design and deployment, Department for Education and National Health Service for the national network connectivity for surgeries for England, Scotland and Wales and the European Bank of Frankfurt Germany.

He holds MBA from Robert Kennedy College in Zürich and MSc in Information Engineering from City University London. He also holds BSc (Hons) Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Kumasi Ghana.

George Asare (Ghana) - Data manager

George is an Economist and Data Management Expert. He had worked at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana from October 2008 to August, 2013 as a Survey Field Assistant, Data Entry Clerk, Data Entry Setup Developer, and a Data Manager. He gained a great deal of experience in survey and data management and the use of CSPro (Census and Survey Processing System) and STATA during his five years engagement at ISSER. His core skills are developing CSPro CAPI (Computer-Assisted Personal Interviewing) and KoboCollect setups for field surveys, managing household survey data, and performing advanced statistical analysis amongst others.