Spotlight interview – Dr Benedicta Yayra Fosu-Mensah
Dr Benedicta Yayra Fosu-Mensah works as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Ghana. She also has experience as a Research Scientist at Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) and External Examiner at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
To mark Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Day, a Ghana national public holiday observed to commemorate the birthday of Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first President, we recently interviewed Benedicta to find out a little more about her and her experience with RECIRCULATE.
Please briefly share with us your current work and affiliations.
My current work is carrying out research, teaching or lecturing at the graduate (MPhil and PhD) level, supervision of MPhil and PhD students thesis research (currently supervising 5 PhD students and 6 MPhil students), mentoring of students and service to the community. My research interest areas are climate change impact assessment and adaptation, environmental quality assessment (environmental pollution), site specific nutrient management, land-use/land-cover change, sanitation and public health. I am currently affiliated to Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies, College of Basic and Applied Sciences, University of Ghana.
How did you hear about the RECIRCULATE project and what has been your experience engaging with the project so far?
I got to know about the RECIRCULATE project through my institute as I was involved in the project as a residence applicant. As a residence participant, the project provided me with the opportunity to network and identify and solve problems related to the project objectives. While at Lancaster University, I had the opportunity to attend a number of seminars and lectures from various work package leaders, researchers and also visited some institutions. I had training on criteria for designing a customized safe and sound protocol (SSP) intervention and implementation plan. I made a presentation on my experience and plans for future collaborative research proposal development.
What would you say are the two biggest challenges you face in Ghana in your line of work and are there opportunities you think can be explored bearing in mind these challenges you highlighted?
The two biggest challenges in the line of my duty are 1) the lack of research funds & 2) equipment for carrying out research but there are also opportunities to explore such as collaboration with people and other institutions to write research proposal for funds and exchange programmes/visits. In the next 5 years, I would like to see Ghana becoming a centre of excellence for research and development.
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