Amanda Yahaya

Based in Ghana, Amanda oversees field research, program implementation, and stakeholder engagement for the USAID Rural Evidence and Learning for Water (REAL-Water) water safety plan evaluation as well as a targeted subsidy project in partnership with the Hilton Foundation and Safe Water Network. She similarly supports expansion of the water quality testing assurance fund program sponsored by USAID, the Hilton Foundation, and the Helmsley Charitable Trust.

Prior to joining Aquaya, Amanda worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Rwanda. There, she supported government and development partners in planning and implementing environment and natural resources, disaster risk management, climate change, and green growth programs. She is a fellow of the inaugural cohort of the African Union Commission and UNDP African Young Women Leaders Fellowship Program. Amanda has studied natural and human influences on water resources in European and African settings. Her master’s thesis assessed how water quality in sand dams and small surface reservoirs is affected by land use, human activities, and catchment characteristics in rural Mozambique.

Amanda holds an MSc in environmental science, specializing in water quality management, from IHE-Delft Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands and a BSc in biochemistry from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.