User:Sammy Obeng

Samuel Nana Kwame Obeng (commonly known and referred to as Sammy Obeng) is a parliamentary practices and procedures expert under 30, who has trained hundreds of civil society and media practitioners on parliament-media-CSO relations. He is the founding Executive Director of Parliamentary News Africa (PNAfrica) - a civil society parliamentary monitoring organisation which works with journalists across the Continent of Africa to ensure parliamentary openness.

Sammy has led consultancy and mobilisation activities for highly revered organisations in Ghana and Sierra Leone such as the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development(CDD-Ghana), Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition, Ghana Integrity Initiative (local chapter of Transparency International), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs of Ghana, the Parliamentary Training Institute of the Parliament of Ghana, the Parliamentary Press Gallery of Sierra Leone among many others. He has also trained and participated in moderated panel discussions of organisations such as the West African Civil Society Institute, the Parliament of Ghana, GIZ’s Alliance for Integrity, the Private Enterprises Federation and the Ghana Employers Association.

He has over a decade of work experience as a media practitioner and corporate manager, a journey that began when he first volunteered for the campus radio station and newspaper of Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia - Canada, in 2007. He was Editor of the UniverseCity Newspaper, a tertiary level student’s newspaperfrom 2010 to 2013, and the winner of the University Students Association of Ghana (USAG) Most Influential Student Leader Award in 2012. Samuel now serves as the Editor-In-Chief of the Parliamentary Newspaper, and the Africa regional news website - www.parliamentafrica.com.

Sammy has conducted many high profile interviews, including being about the first journalist to interview Rt. Hon. Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye upon his election as Speaker of Ghana's Parliament in January 2017. He has facilitate discussion meetings with the Rt. Hon. S. B. B. Dumbuya and Hon. Ibrahim S. Sesay, immediate past Speaker and Clerk of the Parliament of Sierra Leone respectively.

In 2016, Sammy developed a special interest in the cashew value chain, leading to his ground-breaking special report on Ghana's cashew industry which was published in the Parliamentary Newspaper and the global newsletter of the Competitive Cashew Initiative (ComCashew). He has since enrolled on the GIZ/ComCashew Master Training Programme on Agriculture Value Chain with support from the African Cashew Alliance. This is to further enhance his work in the area of agriculture as a means to impact the lives of women, young people and the vulnerable in society.

With a background in Economics and Human Resources Management, he also holds an Advance Certificate in Communication and Governance.