News

AFIDEP wishes to congratulate our Board Chair, Professor Francis Dodoo on his appointment as the Chair of the new Governance Commission of World Athletics (formerly IAAF), the world governing body for Track and Field (Athletics). Professor Dodoo is the only African chair of a Commission at World Athletics (WA) and brings on board a wealth of international governance experience. He takes up this position to lead a 12-member group of internationally distinguished personalities.

This high-level appointment is hardly surprising given that Professor Dodoo is a renowned global leader on many fronts. He is an accomplished athlete, a four-time Olympian, and still holds a 33-year old African Games triple jump record that is yet to be broken on the continent; ironically the record was set in the home city of our headquarters, Nairobi, in 1987. He is also a distinguished and ground-breaking scholar on population and development issues in Africa.

Professor Dodoo was recently an eminent guest speaker at an event organized by Malawi’s National Planning Commission (NPC) with AFIDEP in Lilongwe, Malawi. Using his examples from his own work, he spoke passionately about how individuals and organisations in Africa might take practical action to achieve greater levels of accountability and lower corruption. More: Eminent Speaker’s event coverage.

Passion for sports

A retired Ghanaian athlete, Professor Dodoo is a four-time Olympian who has competed in long jump and triple jump. Beyond his activity in athletics, he was also called up to national teams in five other sports. As a sports administrator, Professor Dodoo has been President of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC), the Ghana Olympians Association (GOA), and the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA). He has also served on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Athletes Committee and the IAAF’s Values Committee, and currently is a member of the Commonwealth Games Federation’s Governance and Integrity Committee. As a consequence of his African Games victory he was voted Ghana’s Sportsman of the Year Award in 1987, followed by the subsequent conferment of the Grand Medal, one of Ghana’s highest awards, in 2006.

Experienced leader and seasoned scholar

Beyond sports, Professor Dodoo is a distinguished scholar and a champion of development, particularly through research and capacity building. He holds dual appointments as Full Professor of Sociology and Demography at the Pennsylvania State University and Professor of Demography at the Regional Institute for Population Studies, University of Ghana. Professor Dodoo has published about 80 articles in international, peer-reviewed outlets and has made over 100 scientific presentations at international fora. He has served on numerous public, non-governmental and corporate boards across the world. AFIDEP’s board, management and staff are proud and pleased to benefit from his leadership and rich governance expertise.