Deputy Director UN Millennium Campaign, Africa

A Ghanaian national, Charles Abugre Akelyira brings to the Campaign over 20 years of anti-poverty campaigning and is a leading intellectual from the African continent. Prior to joining the Campaign, Charles worked at ChristianAid, where he was the Head of the Global Policy and Advocacy Division, based in the UK. During that time he was a visiting gender and macroeconomics lecturer at the University of Utah and the Levi Institute in New York and was also a lecturer and research fellow at the University of Wales in Swansea. Prior to those roles, Charles was Executive Director of the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) and Coordinator of the Africa Secretariat of the Third World Network, both in Ghana. He also has extensive experience with various consultancies and missions related to evaluations, reviews, programme development, capacity development, and research and analysis both within Ghana and the UK but also Nigeria, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Ethiopia, South Africa, Netherlands, and the US, among other countries.

Charles holds a Masters degree in development economics from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands, a Bachelors degree in economics and geography from the University of Ghana in Accra, and is a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Wales, Swansea, UK.