The Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI) has appointed the Ghanaian development specialist, Nafi Chinery, as interim Africa director. In this role, she will oversee the activities of NRGI’s Africa team and provide strategic leadership for NRGI’s work in the region and globally.
Ms. Chinery will combine the work with her current role as West Africa regional manager(Anglophone) at the Institute, where she supervises the design, implementation and coordination of NRGI’s strategic engagements and programmes in Anglophone West Africa.
The phrase: “Interim” suggests that NRGI is still scouting for the permanent occupier of the office, a search that has been ongoing since 2016. The Africa director, in NRGI’s description, is one “who can build relationships with a diverse range of critical partners and harness the strengths of the organization to advance accountable and effective governance in Africa”. The institute says that the role is a unique opportunity “to cohesively improve natural resource governance across Africa.
“Reporting to NRGI’s Chief Operating Officer and as the senior-most representative in the region, the position will define strategic engagements and target agents of change”. Central to the role will be to oversee the successful execution of NRGI’s country strategies, ensuring that lessons learned from the organisation’s engagement and the changing political economy inform its work. “The person will also design and implement a regional strategy, that capitalizes on our engagements in priority countries and seizes new opportunities for reform as they emerge”.
Nafi Chinery has over 20 years of experience in development work. Prior to joining NRGI, she worked with Oxfam GB and the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF), a pan-African grant-making foundation for women’s rights. She has a longstanding career in organizational development and transformative and strategic leadership. For 17 years, Nafi has worked to develop and strengthen credible well informed women’s rights organizations and leaders to accelerate the respect for women and rights of marginalized groups across Africa.
She holds a master’s degree in social development and sustainable livelihoods from the University of Reading, U.K., and a bachelor of arts and diploma in education from Cape Coast University, Cape Coast, Ghana. She was also a 2014 Aspen New Voices Fellow.
