Abena Annobea Asare currently serves as Head, Human Trafficking Secretariat at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MOGCSP), Ghana. With 14 years’ work experience, she has gained a wealth of knowledge and experience on issues of gender-based violence, child protection, child labor, migration, and human trafficking. Her work schedule involves facilitating capacity building programs and advocacy, among others. As a Human Trafficking resource person, she has helped in the rescue, rehabilitation, and reintegration of over 2,900 child and adult trafficking victims.
Abena serves on the Anti–Human Trafficking Management Board as Secretary and other National Boards. She has helped design and implement anti-slavery and trafficking programs in the following sectors: fishing, cocoa, mining, domestic servitude, and sex trafficking in collaboration with government entities and grassroots partners. She has actively undertaken fund-raising programs to facilitate the implementation of sector activities. Ms. Asare is both an active participant in national policy formulation, and an implementor through advocacy, awareness campaigns and negotiations to address the challenges of human trafficking.
She helps build the confidence of adolescent teenagers through interactions with them. She also promotes gender equality and equity for the empowerment of girls and women. Abena currently mentors 6 Fellows of the Emerging Public Leaders of Ghana (EPL Ghana) program. They span cohorts 2 to 4. This is a program that is grooming a cadre of competent and ethical public service leaders to improve government service delivery and create impact. She has many other young and vibrant civil servants that she mentors to navigate challenges and overcome barriers that confront them in their work.
She holds a master’s degree in Migration Studies from the Legon Center for Migration Studies, University of Ghana; two first degrees; a BSc in Gender and Transformation Studies, University of Cape Town, South Africa and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Ghana, Legon. Additionally, she holds a post graduate diploma in Public Administration from GIMPA and a post graduate certificate in Women Leadership and Social Management from the China Women’s University, Beijing, China.
Her master’s degree research topic focused on children in migration and migration policy in Ghana, whereas the first degree looked at the gendered dimensions of child trafficking, stories told by the women who trafficked their children themselves.
With a passion for teaching, Abena is a guest lecturer at the New York University, Ghana; and a lecturer at the Legon Center for Gender Studies (CEGENSA), University of Ghana, Legon. She teaches Gender and Development Studies to shape society. She aspires to pursue a doctorate degree in migration studies that focuses on leveraging the benefits of migration and mitigating its challenges.