Dr. Francis Appiah
The late Dr. Francis Appiah was born on the 5th of September 1955 in Ashanti. He started his primary education in Bechem in the Brong Ahafo region, continued in Kumasi, and moved to Accra where he sat the Common Entrance Examination and was back to Kumasi when he gained admission to Prempeh College. After completing of sixth form in 1976, he entered the University of Ghana in 1977 to read Political Science, Philosophy, and History and graduated in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. (Hons)
Dr. Appiah was known to be a brilliant student and his quest for higher education took him to Nigeria to take up a one-year teaching appointment to enable him to raise some funds. He applied and was admitted to the University of Bergen Norway and enrolled at the Institute of Administration and Organization Science after doing a language programme for a year. On completion, he was awarded a Master’s Degree of Politicos with distinction in 1987. He became a teaching assistant to both foreign and Norwegian students; was also the leader of the Ghanaian community in Bergen and Secretary-Genera! of the African Student’s Union.
Dr. Appiah’s professors encouraged him to pursue his doctorate which he did and obtained a doctorate in Administration and Organization Science. He received numerous offers to take up appointments abroad but Dr. Francis Appiah opted to come home to contribute to build
Dr. Francis Appiah was appointed Secretary to work at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Secretariat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and regional Integration. He worked there till 2004 when at the tip of his tenure, he was appointed the first Executive Secretary of Ghana’s National African Peer Review Mechanism Governing Council Secretariat, where he began the race with the Peer Review Concept and Ghana’s role in the whole process. He walked the Governing Council through the APRM process and
travelled the length and breadth of the country sensitizing the government and people which successfully sailed Ghana through as the first African country to be peer reviewed.
With his innovative thinking, Dr. Francis Appiah came up with the APRM District Oversight Committee concept, a voluntary association of people from the communities who represent the Governing Council at the district level to educate, sensitize community members and to promote local governance – grassroots involvement in governance.
In October 2007 Dr. Francis Appiah was recognized internationally when he won the German Africa prize for his outstanding achievements on the concept and implementation of the APRM. The presentation by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin was followed by the Star of the Volta Award, presented to him by President J.A. Kufour for his contribution to the advancement of the APRM and good governance. He had a line-up of invitations to help other countries to go through the stages of peer review; he was unable to honour them because ill-health took the better part of him and on Thursday, the 22nd of April 2010 he died in hospital.
MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE
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