- Courtesy of the Directorate of International Relations and Advancement (DIRA) led by #Developer Prof. Courage Saba, we bring you this week’s uds@30 Alumni Profile
- Profiled today is Mr. Zuobog Philip Neri
- Enjoy the read below as scripted by the DIRA.
Developer of the week by DIRA
- UDS@30 ALUMNI PROFILING SERIES
- The Developer of the Week
- Name: Mr. Zuobog Philip Neri
- Programme of study at UDS: BSc. Agriculture Technology
- Campus: Nyankpala
- Current status: Technical officer with the Cocoa Health and Extension Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board.
“The practical nature of the teaching and learning in UDS most particularly the TTFPP has enabled me to easily connect theory to practice and this the reason behind my ability to engage in multiple projects as reflect in my engagements. UDS taught me practical management skills, while staying away from campus in Nyankpala Town, I developed practical management habits to manage water and time in the face of water scarcity those days and that has carried me along in my paths of progress.”
Mr. Zuobog Philip Neri
Congratulations Developer Professor Neri!!!
Please read his profile below.
He is an Agricultural Economist and Food Security specialist with over 15 years program management and technical experience having worked in various roles in the public and non-profit sectors such as, Ghana Cocoa Board, Ministry of Trade and Industry, USA Peace Corps, USAID and others local NGOs. He worked in the implementation of a wide variety of projects in sustainable development, ranging from sustainable agriculture, food security, civil society institutional capacity building and governance, agricultural extension and farmer training, participatory policy development, monitoring and evaluation in agricultural systems, service delivery and policy analysis in agriculture and rural development systems, gender policy analysis, climate vulnerability and change adaptation, as well as economic development policy analysis in developing economies.
He currently serves as a Technical officer with the Cocoa Health and Extension Division of the Ghana Cocoa Board. In his current role, he is responsible for the overall field operations of the various programmes implemented by COCOBOD at my operational area including, farmer training and responsible and sustainable production, conducting stakeholder engagements with focus on stakeholder’s identification, sensitization, external communication and grievance redress mechanisms in the cocoa sector relative to sustainability, transparency and traceability in the cocoa supply-chain. He engages with actors at every stage of the cocoa production chain and at the policy level and provide practical technical support to producers, processors, purchasers and other cocoa value chain actors to help them meet their sustainability commitments and standard.
Prior to joining the Ghana Cocoa Board, he worked with the United States Peace Corps as the Programming and Training specialist for the agriculture sector. The US Peace Corps agricultural Programmes which he led as lead technical trainer aimed to increasing smallholder productivity, smallholder market development (improving agribusiness practices), inclusive value chain development, contribute to agribusiness policy development and sustaining the natural resource base, including effective soil and water conservation practices. In the course of my work, he served as the lead technical trainer during both staff in-service training and Pre-service training for Peace Corps volunteers.
Before joining the USA Peace Corps as a Programming and Training specialist, he worked as a lecturer at the Anglican University College of Technology (ANGUTECH). He also had training, working and study experiences in Burkina Faso, Nepal (South Asia), The Netherlands and France.
He holds an MPhil. in Agricultural Economics from KNUST-Ghana, MSc. Management of Development (Rural Development and Food security specialization) from Vanhall Larenstein University of Applied Science, The Netherlands and currently a PhD candidate in Agricultural Economics at the Department of Agriculture and Food Economics, UDS-Tamale.
He is currently the General Secretary of the Netherland Alumni Association of Ghana (NAAG) and also the Executive Director of Foundation for Self-Reliance Ghana (FOUSER-GHANA), a local NGO. He is into general farming and agricultural constancy services and serves as the Managing Consultant of Zuobog Farms and Agri-Consult LTD. He also served as an Assembly member in the Lambussie District Assembly from 2010-2014. He is married with three sons and a daughter.
