Our Doctoral Candidate, Mrs. Justina Adwoa Onumah, from the Institute of Statistical, Social, and Economic Research (ISSER), has been awarded an international prize of Best PhD Student Paper presented at the 17th Global network for the Economics of Learning, Innovation and Competence building Systems (GLOBELICS) Conference in Costa Rica (3-5 November, 2021). GLOBELICS is a worldwide network of more than 2000 scholars engaged in research on how innovation and competence building contribute to economic and sustainable development.

Justina’s research interests are in the fields of impact assessment, innovation systems, welfare analysis, research-policy-industry linkages, productivity and efficiency analysis, rural development, food security, technology transfer, and policy analysis. Her award winning paper titled, Welfare dynamics of innovation and innovation system interactions: implication for poverty reduction among agricultural households is a part of her PhD thesis, under the supervision of Prof Felix A. Asante and Prof Robert D. Osei. The key conclusion from the paper is the prioritization of agricultural digitization and the improvement in farmer interactions with innovation system actors as they were associated with lowered poverty incidences.

Justina’s recognition is no mean achievement as it is a result of hard work, dedication and focus-attributes which characterizes every successful PhD Candidate. She is the first ever PhD Candidate from Ghana to receive this international recognition from GLOBELICS. Ayekoo Mrs. Justina Adwoa Onumah! The School of Graduate Studies and the entire University of Ghana are very proud of you.