Interim Chief Executive Officer
Theo Sowa is an independent advisor working on a wide range of international issues with a focus on social development issues. She holds a BA in International Relations from the University of Sussex and an MA in International and Comparative Education from the University of London (Institute of Education). Her work has covered advocacy, service delivery, evaluation, facilitation, policy and organisational development with a range of international and intergovernmental organizations and grant making foundations, including UNICEF, Stephen Lewis Foundation, the African Union, DFID, and UNDP, amongst others.
This has included youth work and voluntary literacy work with adults in London and a post as deputy director of an innovative pilot project working with children in South London communities as an alternative to custody. Her work led to an appointment to the Board of the UK National Youth Agency by the then Minister for Education, a post she resigned only when she moved to South Africa to work as part of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Technical Advisory team to the first national multiracial South African elections. Theo managed and implemented their programme of technical assistance to the Wits Peace Secretariat, including the mentoring a new management team to recruit, train and organise a team of over 60 part time trainers, and together developing and organising a system of cascade training resulting in the training and organisation of 6000 peace monitors for the elections.
Later, as Senior Programme Advisor on the UN Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children (the Machel Study) Theo was responsible for establishing relationships and developing policy with a range of national and international NGOs, with national governments on all continents and with government representatives based at the UN in New York. She led negotiations for implementation of the report recommendations with international NGOs, relevant UN agencies, the political organs of the UN and senior governmental representatives to the UN, both technical and political. This included the development and negotiation of UN resolutions, the negotiation of policy and practice change in approaches to children caught up in conflict by NGOs and UN agencies and the discussion of techniques to monitor the implementation and impact of change. She later managed the Secretariat conducting the five year review of the impact and outcomes of the Report, leading to an international conference on war-affected children hosted by the Canadian government, while the materials produced were the foundation of a key publication on children and armed conflict.
The credibility established through this and similar work on children’s issues in an international arena led to her appointment as an advisor to President Nelson Mandela and Mrs. Graça Machel in their work on children and leadership issues for the Global Movement for Children. Theo has worked for many years as an advisor to Mrs. Machel on a range of global issues, including women’s rights, child rights, African and international women’s leadership issues, strategic advocacy on international issues concerning Africa, plus advocacy work and liaison with international organisations such as UNICEF and national government bodies.
Theo’s work on women’s rights issues covers a range of activities but has had a special focus on the promotion and protection of women’s rights in armed conflict situations, as well as work evaluating and strengthening women focused development programmes in Africa, plus advocacy related to women and HIV/AIDS issues and to the establishment of a United Nations women’s agency.
An experienced writer, she has produced a number of policy reports for NGOs, from articles for journals and magazines through to being a contributing editor to a book on the Impact of War on Children and the co author of a book on Groupwork with young people. Her most recent publication (Feb 2010) was as a contributing author and co editor of a Harvard Law School/UNICEF Innocenti book on Children and Transitional Justice. Her communications experience includes partnerships with the Communication Initiative and the Communication for Social Change Consortium on a variety of communication and development initiatives. Additionally, Theo worked for three years as a social affairs reporter and presenter for the BBC, Thames TV and Channel Four, thus honing presentational skills and learning to work with and through media on issues of concern.
Theo has extensive experience of working with grantmaking organisations and foundations. She serves currently as a board member of the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (a multi million pound grant making organisation); is a Trustee of Comic Relief and the Chair of its International Grant Making Committee; and is a member of the Africa Advisory Board for the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
Theo is also an Advisory group member of the ‘Every Child a Reader’ literacy initiative, a member of the British Refugee Council Leadership Group and a board member of the Graça Machel Trust. She holds a public appointment as a board member of the Charity Commission for England and Wales and was awarded a CBE in 2010.
Fundraising & Communications Team
Sarah Mukasa works as the Director of Programmes at The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). Prior to this she worked at Akina Mama wa Afrika as the Programmes Manager for Eastern Africa. Sarah has a BA in Business and Management from the University of East London and an MSc in NGO Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Sarah is a feminist activist with extensive experience of advocacy at international, regional, and national levels. She has participated in a number of key UN meetings, where she has coordinated advocacy strategies for the various women’s interest groups, including the African Women’s Caucus, and the Solidarity for African Women’s Rights, a campaign for the ratification and implementation of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.
Sarah also lived in the UK for a number of years, where she worked in local and health authorities as a community development officer, developing services for minority ethnic communities in London and in particular refugees and asylum seekers. She has a special interest in the areas of race as it interfaces with gender, sexual rights and issues relating to the integrity of women’s bodies, as well as the institutional development of women’s rights organisations.
Sarah is a trainer and facilitator specialising in the organisational development of NGOs, feminist theory and practice, and influencing policy. She has coordinated training for The African Women’s Leadership Institute at Akina Mama wa Afrika. She has facilitated meetings and training sessions for AWDF as well as, DANIDA (Uganda), ActionAid International, Uganda as well as a number of regional and national women’s NGOs and government institutions, on capacity building, team building and strategic planning. She is a member of the Working Group of the African Feminist Forum.
Abigail Burgesson is AWDF’s Special Programmes Manager and has worked in the non profit sector in Ghana since 1997. Prior to joining the African Women’s Development Fund, (AWDF), Abigail worked with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI-Ghana), the Institute of Economic Affairs in Ghana as a Legislative and Economic Programme Officer respectively and the Africa Leadership Forum as the Gender Officer.
Abigail has extensive experience in Democratic Governance, Gender and Development issues and Resource Mobilisation. She is a professional project manager and is currently the coordinator of the Certificate Course in Resource Mobilisation organised by the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Resource Alliance (RA)-UK and AWDF and Resource Alliance’s West Africa focal person. She is a trainer in Resource Mobilisation and Events Management.
Abigail is a seasoned events organiser, a professional project manager, a trainer and a motivational speaker on women’s leadership issues. She holds a degree from the University of Ghana, an MA in International Relations from Boston University, a certificate in International Negotiations from the Centre for Applied Studies in International Negotiations, Geneva, Switzerland and specialised training in Project Management, Resource mobilisation and Women’s Leadership.
Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah is Programme Officer for Fundraising & Communications. Nana previously worked as director of Southern Narrative, a UK based social enterprise, was an advertising and marketing executive for West Africa magazine and a leadership/communications trainer for the Metropolitan Police Service in London.
Her experience includes being on the management board of the London and South East Regional Global Dimension Consortium which has responsibility for global dimension education in the South East Region of the UK. She is the convenor of Fab Fem, a group of feminists who meet regularly in Accra and is a patron of Boafo Ye Na, a group of women gari processors in rural Ghana. In 2011, Nana was recognized by ARISE magazine as one of four Ghanaian Change Makers.
Nana is a trained facilitator, accomplished public speaker and a member of The Institute of Public Relations (Ghana). Nana holds a Diploma in Performance Coaching, a Certificate in Conflict Mediation and is a graduate of the University of North London with a BSc (Hons) in Communications and Cultural Studies and holds an MSc in Gender and Development from the London School of Economics.
Joan Koomson is the Programme Officer for Donor Liaison and comes to AWDF from Plan International where she worked as the Resource Mobilization Manager for 4 years.
Prior to that, she worked as a World Bank Consultant on the Government of Ghana Public Sector Restructuring Project under the National Institutional Renewal Programme (NIRP) under the Office of the President.
She has also had extensive experience in working in the NGO sector in the areas of publicity, fundraising and grants management. She holds a B.A (Hons) Degree in Sociology, a Certificate in PR, Advertising and Marketing from the Ghana Institute of Journalism and an MBA in Human Resource Management from the University of Ghana Business School. She is currently a Board Member of Ghana’s Social Investment Fund, a fund set up to contribute towards reducing urban and rural poverty in Ghana.
Thelma Owusu-Boakye is a Programme Assistant at the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). Thelma initially joined the AWDF as national service personnel. Prior to joining AWDF, she worked as a reporter and columnist with the Ghanaian observer newspaper in Accra.
Thelma holds a diploma in Journalism and Communications.
Finance and Administrative Team
Grace Amenyogbeli is the Administrative Manager of the African Women’s Development fund (AWDF). Prior to joining AWDF, she worked at TechnoServe and SNV Netherlands Development Organisation, both international charity organisations as Program Accountant and Assistant Administrator respectively.
Grace has vast experiences in accounting, administration and Human Resource Management. She is the treasurer and board member of her church. She is also the vice president of the ladies’ association of her hometown and a mentor to many young people.
Grace is an Associate of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) UK.
Gertrude Bibi Annoh-Quarshie is the Finance Manager of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF). She is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) of the United Kingdom and also a member of The Institute of Chartered Accountants Ghana (ICAG). She has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Ghana. As Finance Manager of AWDF, her responsibilities include; managing the overall financial obligation of all projects and maintaining accounting controls by enforcing and recommending policies and procedures.
Prior to joining AWDF, she worked with INDEPTH Network an international non-profit organisation based in Accra, Ghana as the Senior Finance Manager. Between 2000 and 2006, she worked with KPMG Ghana, an International Audit Tax and Advisory firm, where she was a team leader in the audit of various companies including insurance, banking, non-banking financial institutions and non-profit organisations.
Gertrude has been a resource person on financial management of not-for-profit organisations at various workshops for the past two years.
Mavis Gardiner is the Finance Assistant of the African Women’s Development Fund. She is a student of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and holds a Bachelors Degree; B.ED (Foundations), Accounting and Economics option from the Cape Coast University (Ghana).
Her roles and responsibilities include working on required information for the preparation of financial statements.
Mavis likes spending quality time with children and devotes her time and resources to making children happy.
Sophia Kpebutso is the Administrative Assistant at the AWDF. Her functions at the Fund include ensuring that the administrative needs of both staff members and visitors are catered for.
She holds a degree in Administration Banking and Finance from the Central University College, Accra – Ghana. She also has a Diploma in Travel & Tourism Management and a certificate in French and Spanish from the Institute of Languages, Ghana.
Afi Quashie is the Finance Assistant at AWDF.Before joining AWDF, Afi worked with Wildam Engineering Services as the Finance Assistant.
She is currently a student of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Afi holds a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Cape Coast.
Grants Team
Beatrice Boakye-Yiadom is the Grants Manager and Programme Officer for HIV/AIDS. Beatrice has been working on HIV/AIDS issues for the past seven years. She has immense experience in field research especially in the areas of public health and marketing. Her interest lies in working with marginalised women and hard to reach communities.
She was formerly with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency as an HIV&AIDS sector coordinator overseeing seven diverse and varied project sites and working with a wide range of target groups particularly mobile communities.
Beatrice is a trained HIV&AIDS peer educator and counselor. She had previously worked in the fields of public relations and advertising.
Beatrice is a graduate of the University of Ghana Business School where she graduated with an Executive Masters in Business Administration (Project Management Option). She also holds a MA in Communication Studies from the same University.
Nafi Chinery is the Capacity Building Programme Officer at AWDF. Before joining AWDF, Nafi worked with Oxfam GB, a British charity organisation for 9 years in various capacities. The last post she held before leaving Oxfam was Programme Quality and Learning Officer.
Nafi is a dedicated professional development worker with extensive experience in building the capacity of Non Governmental Organisations both at local and national levels. She has extensive experience working on issues of livelihood, advocacy, welfare coping strategies, gender, participatory development processes and organisational capacity development.
She holds an MA in Social Development and Sustainable Livelihoods from the University of Reading in UK, a Bachelor of Arts degree and Diploma in Education both from the University of Cape Coast in Ghana.
Zeytuna Abdella Azasoo is the Programme Officer for Monitoring & Evaluation at the African Women’s Development Fund. Prior to joining AWDF, Zeytuna worked with WaterAid (UK) – Ghana programme, Integrated Social Development Centre, Save the Children (UK) – Ghana program and Ministry of local Government and Rural Development, all in Ghana. She also worked with the Institute of Geological Surveys in Ethiopia.
Zeytuna has worked in various capacities for over 16 years in Ethiopia and Ghana with local, national and international organisations. Her skills and experiences are in program coordination and management, decentralised development planning, policy analysis, budget analysis, gender analysis, child-centred development, monitoring and evaluation.
Zeytuna holds a Masters Degree in Economics from KIEV Institute of National Economy, Ukraine. She also acquired a postgraduate diploma in Urban Poverty Reduction from the Institute for Housing & Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam and a second postgraduate diploma in Children, Youth & Development from Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, both in The Netherlands. In addition, she holds a diploma in Commerce/Accounting from Addis Ababa College of Commerce and various certificates in subjects including: Project Management, Budget Formulation and Analysis, Strategic Development Planning, Data Processing and Analysis, Advocacy, Monitoring & Evaluation from various institutions.
Rissi Assani-Alabi is from the Republic of Benin and is the Programme Officer- Francophone Africa / Executive Assistant. Prior to AWDF she worked with Choice FM, a local private radio station in Ghana as an administrator.
With an academic background in languages, translation, leadership, administration and management she has acquired many experiences as a translator and administrator. In her professional capacity as a translator she has also worked with ECOWAS, AU, Africa Leadership Forum, GTZ, UNICEF, UNESCO, UNDP and many international non-governmental organisations.
She is passionate about women’s rights and leadership issues. She has spent a substantial part of her personal life promoting women’s rights and social justice, particularly in the area of women and leadership.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Modern Languages and Translation (French-English-German) and has her postgraduate studies in Public administration from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). She is currently pursuing an Executive MBA in project Management at the University of Ghana Business School. She is an alumni of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) and the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI), a leadership programme of Akina Mama Wa Africa (Uganda) aimed at empowering young African women. She is also a member of the Association of Women in Development (AWID)
Rose Buabeng joined AWDF’s grant making team as Programmes Officer for Anglophone Africa. She previously worked with a consulting group known as the Training Research and Networking for Development (TREND-Group) in Ghana as the Programmes Coordinator-Agriculture and a Gender Expert.
She has had ten years professional experience in Project Planning and Management and Gender Mainstreaming with various development organizations. She is a trainer and well versed in participatory learning approach (PLA) methodologies as well as gender mainstreaming in development programmes. She facilitated the development of a Gender Mainstreaming Policy and Action Plan for the Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA)-Ghana whilst working with the TREND-Group.
She holds a B.Sc. in Natural Resources Management and an M.SC. in Environmental Resources Management from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi-Ghana. She has also attended Certificate Courses in Project Management, GIMPA-Accra and Conflict Management, FAO-WANEP, Ghana.
Hilda de Souza is the Programmes Assistant within the Grants Department. Prior to joining AWDF, she worked as a presenter / reporter with a local radio station in Sunyani (Brong Ahafo Region, Ghana). She has also worked as an Executive Assistant with Multi Systems Ltd. Accra.
Hilda’s has extensive office administration/management experience which she applies to her role within the grants team.
She holds a degree in Human Resource Management from the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), a Diploma in IT and Database Management and an Advance Certificate in Data Management & Network Centered Computing, from the National Institute of Information Technology in Accra, Ghana. Hilda is an alumna of the African Women’s Leadership Institute (AWLI) and a student member of the Institute of Human Resource Management
Practitioners, Ghana.
Gifty Ayebea Anim is the Grants Administrator at the AWDF, making her the first point of contact at the Fund for all project proposals submitted. She holds a Bachelors Degree in Sociology and Philosophy from the University of Ghana, Legon. She is also a graduate of the African Women’s Leadership Institute.
Prior to working with the AWDF, she worked as a Nursery Attendant at Creator Early Childhood Development Centre, Tema.She loves reading, helping the needy and taking care of little children.
