Dr. Ama Pokuaa Fenny is a senior research fellow with the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana. She focuses on the evaluation of health and development programs.
Dr. Fenny studies:
- The role of health financing strategies in offering social protection to vulnerable groups
- Targeted health strategies to improve health seeking behavior
- Costing and cost-effectiveness methods that address efficiency of health programs
She has several years of practical experience and has contributed technical expertise to the ministry of health in Ghana and national and international agencies. She has also carried out costing and health expenditure reviews across West and East Africa.
As a senior fellow at R4D, she is part of the core research team (with HSS Accelerator and GHS) responsible for the design and implementation of a research activity that explores if and how the primary provider network model can support equitable coverage for essential services in Ghana.
In 2016, Dr. Fenny was a west Africa global health leaders fellow, with the Centre on Global Health Security, Chatham House. Her research there focused on how the poor could be integrated into social health insurance programs in sub-Saharan African countries. Subsequently, she also helped develop strategies to improve health systems performance and governance for universal health coverage (UHC) in Ghana. In 2020, she served as a member of the commission which created a comprehensive report on the state of UHC in Africa. This led to her serving as a commissioner on Africa’s response to the COVID pandemic.
Dr. Fenny is a board director of the International Health Economics Association (IHEA) and is actively engaged in iHEA’s mentorship program for potential members and early career health economists. She is also a member of the iHEA SIG: Economics of Children’s Health and Wellbeing, drawing on her experience in evaluating child and adolescent health interventions in low- and middle-income countries. She is also a member of the African Health Economics and Health Policy Association (AfHEA). Currently the chair of the scientific committee for AfHEA’s 2022 Conference, she consults and advises on AfHEA-led projects and is actively engaged in AfHEA’s mentorship programs.
Dr. Fenny has a PhD in health economics from the department of public health, Aarhus University, Denmark and an MSc in health, population and society from the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK).
