The Northern Development Authority (NDA) is one of the three Development Authorities established by an ACT of Parliament (Act 963, 2017) in Ghana to “provide a framework for accelerated economic and social development of the Northern Development Zone and for related matters”. The other two Authorities are the Coastal and Middle-Belt Development Authorities, focusing on the southern and middle belt of the country respectively.

Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman assumes office as the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer for the NDA, the third in the five-year history of the Authority.

Until his appointment, Mr. Abdul-Rahman was the immediate past Country Director of ActionAid Ghana, with a wealth of international, regional and country-level experience in strategic programme development and management of humanitarian actions. He has served in several capacities and pioneered many laudable initiatives to further human rights, poverty alleviation and the promotion of social justice. Mr. Abdul-Rahman’s international work in ActionAid began in Liberia, where he was seconded as a Country Representative. In 2005, he was appointed Coordinator of the Sahel Food Crises Programme based in Niamey, Niger. The Sahel Food Crises Programme was an ActionAid International initiative designed to address food insecurity in the Sahel area of Niger and Burkina Faso.

Between 2007 and 2011, Mr. Abdul-Rahman was ActionAid’s International Emergencies and Conflict advisor for West and Central Africa, a responsibility that involved managing emergencies and addressing conflict across nine (9) countries in the sub-region. Prior to his appointment as Country Director of Action Aid in 2014, he was the Accountability & Management Support Coordinator for ActionAid International in charge of West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Liberia). This role involved management support to countries and the monitoring of their compliance to the Federation’s regulations including the promotion of downward accountability standards.

Mr. Sumaila Abdul-Rahman has an MSc. Degree in Managing Rural Change from the Imperial College, University of London, UK and a Bachelor of Social Sciences Degree in Economics and Sociology and Diploma in Education.