About

Born on 31st March 1977, in Accra Ghana, Prof Ransford Edward Van Gyampo is a Professor of Political Science and the Founding Director of the Centre for European Studies of the University of Ghana, with 20 years of teaching and research experience. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ghana and Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. His research interest lies in the areas of Governance, Leadership and Democratic Development in Ghana and Africa; Youth Empowerment and Development; Natural Resource Management; Electoral Studies; Ghanaian and African Politics; Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea; and Building Resilient Peace in Africa. Prof Gyampo is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of South Florida, in the USA. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol, United Kingdom. For 14 years, he worked at the Governance Unit of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA-Ghana), rising through the ranks as Research Assistant to the position of Senior Research Fellow. He led a number of research projects and played a key role in the IEA’s Socio-Economic and Governance Surveys that churned out evidence-based research findings on critical socio-economic and governance issues affecting Ghanaians and proffered proposals to address them. These issues and proposals to deal with them, were summarized and discussed at several roundtables and publicized in the media to generate extensive discussion to influence and shape public policy. For 10 years, Prof Gyampo was as the Coordinator of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy-sponsored Ghana Political Parties Programme (NIMD-GPPP). This programme brought together the leadership of Political Parties with representation in Ghana’s Parliament and created a monthly dialogue platform for the discussion of critical socio-economic and governance issues of national importance, in a highly non-partisan manner and to propose practical solutions to them. Some of the outcomes of Prof Gyampo’s coordination of the NIMD-GPPP include the conduct of Presidential Debates, Evening Encounters and Town Hall Meetings with Presidential Hopefuls before elections; the drafting of the 2012 Presidential Transition Bill, which is now an Act of Parliament; the review of the Political Parties Act; the drafting of Public Funding of Political Parties’ Bill; the drafting of the Right to Information Bill, which is now an Act of Parliament; the preparation of Code of Conduct for Political Parties and setting up of Enforcement Bodies at the Regional and National Levels to oversee compliance, to maintain peace before, during and after elections in Ghana; nationwide public consultations and submission of report to the President of Ghana in 2015 on Winner-Takes-All Politics, its dangers and practical proposals for reform; and extensive research and public consultations in auditing the gaps in Ghana’s democracy, culminating in the drafting of the Democracy Consolidation Strategy Paper (DCSP), a document that made the first call for the review of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution in 2009, in view of its hindrances to the maturation of Ghana’s democratization processes. The gains and democratic dividends of the NIMD-GPPP in Ghana, were exported to many neighboring West African countries including Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, through a program called the West African Regional Political Parties Program (WARPPP), and Prof Gyampo played a coordinating role in ensuring the success of WARPPP. Prof Gyampo also worked at the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) as Senior Research Fellow for two years and assisted with research on the IDEG’s democratic devolution programmes that were aimed at giving more power of decision making on key governance issues, including the direct elections of Metropolitan/Municipal/District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) to the people at the grassroots. He heads the Youth Bridge Research institute (YBRI) and has been involved for the last 7 years, in the conduct of important research issues and policy engagements on matters germane to youth development, mentorship, and participation in decision making locally and nationally, in Ghana and Africa. He is a member of Ghana’s Electoral Reforms Committee and played a key role in identifying the challenges of Ghana’s electoral processes and submitting electoral reform proposals to the Electoral Commission for the purposes of fine-tuning Ghana’s electoral system. He is also a member of the Representation of the People’s Amendment Act (ROPAA) Consultative Committee, a Committee set up by the Electoral Commission of Ghana to research, consult and advise on the implementation of the law that mandates Ghanaians living abroad to vote in Ghanaian elections. As an academic, Prof Gyampo has more than 200 research works and publications to his credit within his areas of research interest. These have been published in reputable academic outlets across the globe as Books, Book Chapters, Book Reviews, Peer Reviewed Journal Articles, Technical Reports, Monographs and Policy Briefs. He is passionate about issues of democracy, governance and electoral politics in Ghana and Africa and comments extensively on these areas in the media and at important roundtables, with a view to shaping Ghana’s governance landscape and assisting Ghana and Africa’s drive towards democratic maturity. Finally, Prof Gyampo is a member of the Governing Council of the University of Ghana, and currently President of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UG-UTAG), after serving as the Association’s General Secretary for two years. As Labor Union Leader, he has played the crucial role of a catalyst in shaping labor union activism and fighting forcefully for better Conditions of Service for University Teachers and labor, in Ghana. He hails from Saltpond in the Central Region and Larteh in the Eastern Region of Ghana.

Education

• PhD in Political Science - University of Ghana/Tufts University, Boston
• MPhil in Political Science - University of Ghana, Ghana
• B.A. in Political Science - University of Ghana, Ghana

Research Interest

• European Studies
• Maritime Security
• Natural Resource Management
• Election Management and Electoral Politics

Selected Publications

• Gyampo, R.E.V. (2022). Donor-funded capacity building in promoting maritime security in Ghana. Copenhagen: AMARIS Project, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.
• Jacobson, K.L., Gyampo, R.E.V. & Techie-Menson E.A. (2022). Capacity building beyond the classroom: Politics host state and donor dynamics. Copenhagen: AMARIS Project, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.
• Gyampo, R.E.V. & Jacobson, K.L. (2021). How capacity building is negotiated: The case of maritime security in Ghana. Copenhagen: AMARIS Project, Department of Political Science, University of Copenhagen.
• Gyampo, R.E.V. (2019). The future of EU-Africa relations. Legon: Centre for European Studies.