Feb. 15, 2021

UCalgary Political Science interviews Doctoral Candidate Ben Adu Gyamfi

On being a business student and moving into political science, understanding the sources of policy change in African governments, and a passion for teaching.

Ben Adu Gyamfi is a senior doctoral candidate and sessional instructor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Calgary

Your work is broadly on public administration and public sector reforms. How did you become interested in this area?

Originally, I was a business student. When I entered the University of Ghana in 2001 for my bachelor’s degree, my initial plan was to pursue Business Administration. However, I took two different courses, local government and public administration respectively, that changed my research interest and focus. The local government course was the most influential. This was mainly because of how the course was structured and taught by the lecturer. I became so passionate about local governance that I did my thesis on grassroots participation in local government elections in Ghana.

Currently, you are finishing up your doctorate in the Department of Political Science. Can you tell us a bit about it?

I am currently working on public policy making and policy change in Africa. Using Ghana as a case study, the main aim of the research is to understand why African governments are able to initiate major policy change in certain policy areas but an only incremental change in others. Ghana has made remarkable, path-departing change in its healthcare financing and local governance policies but has seen only marginal change in its education financing policy. The study maintains that policy entrepreneurs and government political will and commitment culminating in partisan decisions explain the different policy outcomes and differing magnitude of change in these three policy areas.

What are your plans for after your Ph.D.?

My plan after my Ph.D. is to teach. I have a passion for teaching. I spent over seven years immediately after my undergraduate studies teaching. I also had the privilege and opportunity to serve as a sessional lecturer at the University of Lethbridge. Currently, I am a sessional instructor at the department. I hope to continue in this direction.

Finally, what are you teaching currently?

I currently teach public policy courses at the department. As a teaching assistant at the department, I have also taught different courses including quantitative research methods and African politics.