Alice Mapenzi Kubo

Alice Mapenzi Kubo is a PhD candidate at the African Studies Centre Leiden. She was appointed in March 2016 to examine developments within the shea industry in Northern Ghana and the implications for livelihoods. The study is part of the project Society and Change in Northern Ghana: Dagomba, Gonja, and the Regional Perspective on Ghanaian History. Alice is supervised by Prof. Ton Dietz and Dr Michel Doortmont of the ASCL, and by Prof. Seidu Al-hassan, University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. Alice holds a MSc. in International Development Studies (cum laude) from the University of Amsterdam. Her Bachelor and Master’s theses have been commercially published. She was one of the reviewers of the World Bank/UNICEF Operational Guide (2009) on school fees abolition. From 2010 to 2013, she served as jury member of the Africa Thesis Award. 

As a development practitioner for over nine years, she worked closely with government Ministries, telecom companies, NGOs and UN agencies, especially UNICEF. She was on missions in many countries in Africa, and she contributed to articles by GAATW and The Broker. Earlier, she served as Council Member for Malindi Museum Society, an organisation focusing on cultural, environmental and health matters in Malindi, a small town on the Kenyan Coast.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, shea industry, development cooperation.