Dr. Alesia D. Ofori works at the intersection of governance, society, and sustainable development, investigating how political, economic, and socio-cultural processes across local, meso, and global levels shape the governance of natural resources and development outcomes.
At the UNU-INWEH, as the Society, Development and Governance Research Fellow, her work explores how power is exercised and contested in systems meant to deliver clean, safe, and sustainable water, land, and livelihoods.
Her work spans Sub-Saharan Africa, with extensive engagement in Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. She has led and contributed to research on water security, agriculture, extractives, sanitation, and gender equity, placing lived realities and politics at the centre of governance and policy debates.
She also works on building capacity, facilitating workshops with local governments, supervising early-career researchers, and developing learning tools such as Political Economy Analysis (PEA) and gender intersectionality frameworks to bridge the gap between research and action.
Dr. Ofori has collaborated with various international organizations to deliver policy-relevant insights on climate resilience, inclusive service delivery, and institutional reform and has contributed to Global Challenges Research Fund Water Security Hub and Scaling Up Off-Grid Sanitation initiatives.
She holds a PhD in International Development (University of Leeds, U.K.), a Master’s in Sustainable Forest Management (University of British Columbia, Canada), and a B.Sc. in Natural Resources Management (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana).