Meet the Team

Umaru Fofanah serves as the Sierra Leone Country Coordinator for CenHTRO. He comes to CenHTRO from the Parliament of Sierra Leone as Program Officer (2019-2020). Umaru has served on the board of two parliamentary projects in an officer capacity and has facilitated the review of the parliamentary Standing Orders in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) – DISP project. He has participated in the development and implementation of various projects and initiatives such as the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) UK and the Westminster Foundation for Democracy respectively. Umaru has also served as Project Delivery Coordinator at the British Council (2014-2019). While working at the British Council, he coordinated the implementation of the Modern Slavery – Open Your Eyes project in Sierra Leone ─ funded by the Antislavery Knowledge Network and the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom ─ of which 1,200 pupils their parents and teachers were the direct beneficiaries. He has managed and administered series of Professional Development training programs to teachers, educators and lecturers at universities and teacher training colleges in Sierra Leone, including programs on 21st century soft skills and child protection issues. He also led the British Council’s Skills Development and Entrepreneurship program, the Diversity Assessment Framework, and the Equality Diversity and Inclusion programs. Umaru also coordinated the Commonwealth Scholarship Program through Scholar and Alumni engagement programs on behalf of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom. He has successfully implemented a Governance and Security grant awarded by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), where one thousand Police Officers in Sierra Leone were trained in the use of English for Effective Policing (EEP). Umaru has also coordinated a Higher Education grant awarded by the Department for International Development (DFID); he worked closely with the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education and Universities to implement the program. He also served as Project Officer at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (2013-2014). Umaru was JICA’s focal person at the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security for the Sustainable Development Rice Program. Additionally, he served as the Personal Financial Consultant at Standard Chartered Bank (2012-2013). From 2010 to 2012, he was the SME Credit Officer at Ecobank Sierra Leone. Umaru brings wealth of experience in program management with a focus on project planning, implementation and delivery, monitoring and evaluation, child protection, operational management, team leadership, finance, administration and process improvement.