The SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) will between October 17 and 19, 2023 hold its third annual SDD-UBIDS Research and Development Conference. As part of its mandate to promote Research and innovation
within the University, the Directorate of Research, Innovation, and Consultancies (DRIC) instituted the annual Research and Development Conference with the maiden event held in 2021.
Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo will be the Keynote Speaker at the third annual SDD-UBIDS Research and Development Conference at the Bamahu Campus of the University in Hall 3. Over 90 participants and presenters drawn from universities at home and abroad will be participating in the third edition.
The third edition will be enhanced with a panel discussion, with Dr. Ophelia Soliku serving as the moderator and featuring a distinguished panel consisting of Prof. David Milliar, Prof. Africanus Diedong, and Prof. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo. Ransford Edward Van Gyampo is a Professor of Political Science and the Founding Director of the Centre for European Studies of the University of Ghana, with 20 years of teaching and research experience. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ghana and
Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His research interest lies in the areas of Youth Empowerment and Development, Governance, Democracy, Electoral Studies, Ghanaian and African Politics, and Natural Resource Management.
Until recently, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of South Florida, USA. He currently serves as a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. For 14 years, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Governance Unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Ghana), leading a number of research projects and playing a key role in the IEA’s Socio-Economic and Governance Surveys that churned out evidence-based research findings on critical socio-economic and governance issues affecting Ghanaians and proffered proposals to address them.
For 10 years, he also served as the Coordinator of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy/Institute of Economic Affairs-sponsored Ghana Political Parties Programme (NIMD/IEA-GPPP). The gains and democratic dividends of the NIMD/IEA-GPPP in Ghana were exported to many neighbouring West African countries including Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, through a program called the West African Regional Political Parties Program (WARPPP), and Prof Gyampo played a coordinating role in ensuring the success of the WARPPP.
He also worked at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) as a Senior Research Fellow for two years and assisted with research on the IDEG’s democratic devolution programmes that were aimed at giving more power of decision-making on key governance issues, including the direct elections of Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to the people at the grassroots.
He heads the Youth Bridge Research Institute (YBRI) and has been involved for the last four years, in the conduct of important research issues and policy engagements on matters germane to youth development, mentorship, and participation in decision-making locally and nationally, in Ghana and Africa.
He is a member of Ghana’s Electoral Reforms Committee and played a key role in identifying the challenges of Ghana’s electoral processes and submitting electoral reform proposals to the Electoral Commission for the purposes of fine-tuning Ghana’s electoral system. He is also a member of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA) Consultative Committee, a Committee set up by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to research, consult and advise on the implementation of the law that mandates Ghanaians living abroad to vote in Ghanaian elections.
As an academic, he has more than 200 research works and publications to his credit within his areas of research interest. He is also currently serving as President of the University of Ghana branch of the University Teachers Association of Ghana, after serving as General Secretary for the same Association for two years. He has played a crucial role as a catalyst in shaping labor union activism and the fight for better Conditions of Service for University Teachers and labour as a whole, in Ghana.
He comes from Saltpond in the Central Region and Larteh in the Eastern Region of Ghana. He is married with three children and a Christian of the Pentecostal faith.
The Organizing Committee Chaired by the immediate past Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovations and Consultancies Prof. Oscar Dassah invites the general public to the Opening ceremony of the third annual SDD-UBIDS Research and Development Conference 2023.