Dr. Rita Owusu-Amankwah is a development expert with skills and hands-on working experience in policy development and implementation, gender, equity and social inclusion (GESI), research, baseline studies, midterm and end term evaluation, strategic partnerships management, organization development, operations and projects management, public policy development, government relations, advocacy, sustainable agricultural value chains, voluntary sustainability standards, human right due diligence, women empowerment and entrepreneurship, social and child protection, capacity strengthening, socio-economic research, and multi-stakeholder engagements. She has (over 24 years) of rich experience in various fields of endeavour as a Development Practitioner.

She has led and executed projects and programmes on behalf of government & non-governmental organisations and international organisations such as the International Labour Organistion and United Nations Development Programme and the private sector. She has also led the execution of projects/programmes funded by the World Bank, UNICEF and European Union. She has provided consultancy services for Fair Trade International/Fair Trade Africa, Tony’s Chocolonely, World Cocoa Foundation, Solidaridad West Africa, GIZ, JICA/ International Development Center of Japan Inc, World University Services of Canada and some Multinational Companies on Cocoa sustainability, sustainable agricultural policy development gender, TVET and child protection, and Farmers’ organizations. She contributed to the development of the Ghana Cocoa Sector Development Strategy II, National Child Labour Frameworks, and National Plan of Action on Child Labour. She was the Social Protection Director (World Bank technical support) at Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Ghana; Country Programme Coordinator for the US Department of Labour (USDOL) and National Confectionary Association funded United Nations International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) West Africa Cocoa/Commercial Agriculture Project (WACAP) that pioneered interventions to eliminate child labour in cocoa farms in West Africa. As a researcher and gender expert, Rita has led teams of researchers to conduct many studies in areas of women empowerment, gender analysis, child labour, social protection and farmer livelihoods. Furthermore, she is organizational development expert, seasoned trainer, and dynamic coordinator and highly experienced in programme design and management, development of strategic frameworks, and training manuals as well as training of individuals and groups.

She holds a Degree of Doctor (Sociology) focusing on innovation in Supply Chain Management from Wageningen University in the Netherlands, MA in Industrial Management (Marketing & Financial Management), Post Graduate Diploma in Organisation Development from OCIC/OD Institute in the USA and BA in Social Sciences (Economics & Sociology) from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and many short courses related to area of work.