Dr. Baffour Takyi, director of The University of Akron’s Pan African Studies Program and professor of sociology in UA’s Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences, will participate in a United Nations Expert Group Meeting on the structure of families June 1-3 at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
Dr. Baffour Takyi
The meeting, at which participants will focus on assessing family policies — specifically poverty and social exclusion — and ensuring work-family balance, is being convened in preparation for the 20th anniversary of the International Year of the Family in 2014.
Takyi will join 12 other experts from across the globe and 13 representatives from international organizations, U.N. offices, agencies and civil society organizations for the meeting.
The recommendations and papers stemming from the meeting will be used in the 2011 Report of the Secretary-General, “The Preparations for and Observance of the 20th Anniversary of the International Year of the Family.”
“I’m excited to be invited to such an august meeting and showcase the talent andquality of the faculty we have here at UA,” says Takyi. “I hope my recommendations will be of help in the U.N.’s poverty alleviation efforts in sub-Saharan Africa, the region of my birth.”
Takyi’s research focuses on areas such as:
- demographic and health outcomes in Africa;
- family dynamics;
- the intersection of gender and power on fertility decisionmaking; and
- the experiences of Africans and other black immigrants within the U.S.
His paper, “Transformations in the African Family: A Note on Migration, HIV/AIDS and Family Poverty Alleviation Efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa,” is one of 12 submitted for the meeting. In addition, he also will serve as a moderator for a session on a regional overview of anti-poverty policies on families in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Takyi joined UA in 1997 as an assistant professor of sociology, He was named director of the University’s Pan African Studies Program in 2005, and became a full professor in 2009. He recently was appointed as a founding member of the newly established National Institute of Health (NIH) Grant Review College. Members of the College review application grants by leading researchers around the world. In addition, he has published three books, 16 book chapters and more than 30 peer-reviewed articles.
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Media contact: Sarah Lane, 330-972-7429 or slane@uakron.edu.