By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
In order to continue its work in the West African nation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has appointed Fredrick Ampiah as the new Resident Representative in Sierra Leone.
Ampiah whose appointment was made public in a press release issued by the United Nations Development Agency on the 31st of August 2023, has officially presented his credentials to the government of Sierra Leone through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Timothy Kabba, marking the official commencement of his duty tour in the country.
He was said to have over 28 years of development and management experience in varied contexts- fragile states, post-conflict/conflict countries, and a range of thematic areas. His area of specialty includes; Democratic Governance, Peace and Security, Elections, Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), Sustainable Development like Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for development, Technology/Innovation management, and Private sector development.
Prior to this position, Ampiah was the UNDP Regional Coordinator of SALW for the West and Central Africa Sub-Regional Hub, based in Dakar and Regional Project manager of the Organized Crime West Africa Response to Trafficking (OCWART) and the Cross-Border Management of Small Arms projects in the ECOWAS region.
He also served as Acting Chief of the Country Oversight Support Team (COST) with the Regional Bureau for Africa in New York. He has also served as the Regional Coordinator of the EU-funded ECOWAS project across seven ECOWAS States from July 2015 to 2020.
The new UNDP Representative in Sierra Leone is said to have served in different senior leadership roles in the agency including Resident Representative in UNDP Nigeria; UNDP Deputy Country Director Programme in Nigeria, and Assistant Country Director - Partnership Resource Mobilization in UNDP in Somalia. He also served as the Partnerships Adviser with UNDP Ghana and Ebola Crisis Manager in Liberia from October 2013 to February 2015, in addition to his role as the Partnerships and Compliance Adviser in UNDP Liberia. He has other country working experience in India, Honduras, and Panama.
Before joining UNDP, Ampiah worked in the Private sector notably with J. Ottman Consulting in New York, Select Service Partners in Denmark, and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PwC) in Ghana.
He is a Harvard Kennedy School of Government Executive Education in Emerging Leadership graduate. He holds a Master’s degree (MSc) in International Business Economics and a Postgraduate degree in International Management from Aalborg University, Denmark. He graduated from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and History.
The United Nations Development Programme is the leading United Nations organization fighting to end the injustice of poverty, inequality, and climate change, working with a broad network of experts and partners in 170 (one hundred and seventy) countries and also helping nations to build integrated, lasting solutions for people and planet.
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