Franklin Oduro
Franklin Oduro
Resident Program Director for Election Programming (Ethiopia Office), National Democratic Institute (NDI)
PhD in Political Science (Comparative Politics with Public Policy Analysis), 2012
Upon completion of my doctoral degree program I returned to Ghana to take a position as the Director of Programs and also doubling as the Deputy Executive Director at the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), an independent, non-governmental and non-profit research and policy advocacy think tank dedicated to the promotion of democracy, good governance and economic openness in Ghana and throughout Africa. As part of my schedule, I focused on civil society and political processes, including citizens’ participation in election process, providing technical assistance and managing the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO), the largest domestic election citizens’ observer group in Ghana. I served as a member of Ghana’s Electoral Commission Electoral Reform Committee between 2015 and 2016; have consulted for the Kofi Annan International Peace Training Center (KAIPTC), Accra, Ghana as a Course Facilitator on Election Observation Training (EOT) Courses and a Curriculum Reviewer on Election Observation Training (EOT) Courses for KAIPTC; project manager for the West African Election Observers Network (WAEON), a network of 13 citizens’ observer groups from 13 countries in the West Africa sub-region. In addition to electoral process, I have been involved in research and advocacy on post-transition politics of human rights accountability, such as transitional justice and national, reconciliation processes. My democracy and good governance promotion work has included supporting the strengthening of democratic institutions, creating opportunities for citizens to participate in governance processes and demanding transparency and accountability of public officials, and has also taken me beyond Ghana to other African countries, such as Nigeria, Liberia, Kenya, Senegal, among others, and currently in Ethiopia where I have supported and advised civil society groups on transitional justice process and deepening electoral integrity. Besides being in the policy engagement environment I have also been lecturing as an adjunct professor at Universities in Ghana, including University of Ghana, and Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration as well as serving as an examiner of post-graduate thesis, in addition to external reviewer of several peer review journals.
Carleton University prepared me with requisite knowledge of comparative perspective and of strong analytical background in understanding how to support the sustenance of enabling democratic good governance processes. The combination of theory and practical understanding of political processes was of significant help in preparing me for my career. My professors were very incredible and valuable to me, very welcoming and guided me to put research into practice. Certainly, Carleton was enabling as it provided opportunity to meet several people of different nationalities, different perspectives and contextual background, both developing and developed societies, and of course, the ‘Capital Advantage’ was a bonus and inspirational for a student of political science.