Akosua Boakye - Ansah
PhD fellow
Biography
Ms. Akosua Sarpong Boakye- Ansah from Ghana was the runner-up of the Africa Thesis Award 2015, for her thesis 'Inequalities in drinking water quality in Urban Areas: A case study of Lilongwe, Malawi'. The thesis aims to improve our understanding of the socio-environmental dynamics of drinking water quality in cities in the Global South. The interdisciplinary nature of the thesis with mentors from two different chair groups and backgrounds (Maria Rusca-Integrated Water Systems and Governance and Giuliana Ferrero-Environmental Engineering and Water Technology) presents a good interdepartmental cooperation in the institute. Ms. Boakye-Ansah graduated in April with distinction in Water Management at IHE Delft. This year the jury received 49 theses submitted for the Award.
Akosua is now doing PhD research. The title of her PhD research is: Performance Enhancement of Water utilities in Kenya through benchmarking, collective learning and innovative financing (PEWAK). The PEWAK project, which involves 25 cities and urban centres in Kenya, aims at improving the performance of Water Service Providers (WSPs) in Kenya with particular emphasis on pro-poor strategies.
"I have a technical background and I wanted to go back to work in the field, but after the MSc thesis I realized that I need to conduct more research into water issues. Hopefully I will be able to apply my research to a broad field. I am open to opportunities related to water.”