Steering Committee Members

NEWSAN BOARD OF TRUSTEES

MR. LEO ATAKPU
DIRECTOR ANEEJ & CHAIR ANEW

Mr. Leo Atakpu is the founding member and first National Coordinator of NEWSAN; he is also a Director at ANEEJ. He served as the immediate past Chair of The African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW), a twenty-three-member civil society platform on water and sanitation issues in Africa. As initiator and lead founding member of NEWSAN he has overseen the establishment and effective coordination of the largest umbrella network of WASH based Civil Societies, Non-Governmental Organizations, Community based Organizations in Africa.

His agenda for the national (NEWSAN) and continental (ANEW) fronts has repositioned WASH based non- profit organizations for greater efficiency in the discharge of their responsibilities, engaging stakeholders and ensuring they are able to meet various commitments at different levels.

Through his leadership ANEW and NEWSAN have been strengthened as evidenced by numerous partnerships with and being recognized by global WASH bodies such as Sanitation and Water for All, End Water Poverty, WSSCC, WaterAid etc. He is an advocate of the realization of people’s access to safe water and sanitation facilities as a human right which prompted him to get like-minded professionals together in the formation of country network to tackle the issues involved. His aim is to establish ANEW national network in other African countries where they do not currently exist.

JOHN DADA
DIRECTOR FANTSUAM

John Dada, the volunteer CEO of Fantsuam Foundation was born in Jos, Nigeria and obtained a PhD from Ahmadu Bello University, (1989)  and worked there as a lecturer up till 1994. He was a research Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK where he also completed a Masters degree in Public Health. He is a trained nurse and served as a member of the African Stakeholders Network – United Nations ICT Task Force and was chairperson of the African Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC).  

Under his watch, Fantsuam Foundation http://www.fantsuam.org/ has done groundbreaking work in growing Nigeria’s rural knowledge economy Nigeria, and this is having significant impact in BayanLoco, Kafanchan and the surrounding villages. FF was established as one of the first rural-based ICT educational institutions in Nigeria in 2000. That year, we were awarded the first Hafkin Africa Prize for our innovative use of ICT. Part of the prize money was set aside to provide scholarships for 10 women to attend basic computer literacy courses at the school. This modest beginning has led to the establishment, of Nigeria’s first rural-based, solar-powered Cisco Networking Academy and other ICDL-level courses. The Foundation’s achievements has been featured on CNN’s Global Challenges Program. BBC World and BBC Africa Service. Dadamac-UK http://www.dadamac.net facilitated his meeting with some stakeholders in Westminster Hub, London, in April 2012 to share his experience

John’s passion has been the development of a dynamic social protection service for the most vulnerable with support of food security, legal protection, economic empowerment, social welfare benefit and education  A recognition of his efforts was the 2008 Meritorious Award, University of Queensland, Australia, http://www.uq.edu.au/sjc. In 2010, he was nominated a CNN Hero. He discusses Fantsuam’s work In The Rosetta Foundation YouTube channel. http://dadamac.posterous.com/video-john-dada-realities-of-micro-finance-an.

PRISCILLA M. ACHAKPA
NATIONAL COORDINATOR WSSCC,
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR WEP.

Priscilla is the Executive Director of Women Environmental Programme a non-governmental, non-profit, non-religious and voluntary organisation, which was established in 1997 by a group of grassroots women in Nigeria. The major aim is to address the gender injustices on issues relating to environment, economic and social rights of women, children and youths in the society. WEP Headquarters is situated in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria. WEP has operational offices in two geopolitical zones North Central and North East) in Nigeria. She has  a PhD from University of Banja Luka, Serbia,  holds a Masters Degree in Development Studies from Benue State University Postgraduate Diploma in Management and Business Administration from Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi, Post Graduate Diploma in Land Management and Informal Settlement Regularisation from Institute for Housing and Urban Development (IHS) the Netherlands, Higher National Diploma in Management and Business Administration from Kaduna Polytechnic and currently at Benue State University for Masters in Development Studies.

She has vast experience in, banking, Ecclesia Labour Movement and has worked with organisations such as Savannah Bank where she was Head of Operations and also as a consultant with the Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Abuja Office of Health and Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), to mention a few. Her interests are reading, travelling, research, listening to music and making friends. She is currently the National Coordinator for Geneva based Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) in Nigeria.

HOPE EGHE OGBEIDE
DIRECTOR SWAPHEP,
ZONAL COORDINATOR NEWSAN

Hope is a founding member of the Society for Water and Public Health Protection (SWAPHEP) – SWA established on 10th of August 1998 as a registered Non-profit, NGO in Nigeria. The NGO has made tremendous impact on community development and policy reforms in Nigeria.

In the last decade SWAPHEP’s main focus has been on supporting communities affected by dams to address their concerns and to enhance their capacities to engage government and other stakeholders involved dam building in Nigeria. He is a Biochemist by training and has had much on-the-job training in Water Resources Management, Water and Sanitation, Gender and Comprehensive Disaster Management.

His experiences in the water and environment sector dates back to 1998, when he jointly founded and became the Director of the Society for Water and Public Health Protection (SWAPHEP). He has initiated and directed many projects including “Peoples’ Initiatives for a Clean Environment (PICK)’, “Tools for Water Policy Analysis: the Frameworks of the World Commission on Dams” and “Enhancing the Involvement of the Civil Society in the Water Governance of the Hadejia-Jama’are-Komadugu-Yobe Basin”.

He has authored more than 30 publications and has vast experiences locally and internationally on issues spanning dams and development; water, sanitation and hygiene; IWRM; wetlands conservation, water privatization and public health. Hope E. Ogbeide is on the board of many national, continental and international organizations.