Gedion Onyango is a researcher and scholar in Public Policy and Governance in African countries. He has over a decade of experience in teaching, mentoring, supervising and examining PhD and Master research students in Higher Education, having taught as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, as well as a Guest Lecturer at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany and the University of Quebec in Montreal, Canada. He is a co-PI at the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development (CPAID). He is also a senior research associate at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and an associate editor for the . This is besides sitting on other Editorial Boards of journals like the , , etc. Throughout his career, Gedion has collaborated with scholars, politicians, and practitioners on research, policy evaluation consultancies, and stakeholder engagement regarding public policy and governance issues in South Africa, Uganda, and Kenya. He is highly skilled in ethnographic methodologies, which he applies to the study of African countries' public sector and public policy, particularly in public accountability and politics, whistleblowing, digital governance, democracy, and human rights. Gedion has established an international reputation in these areas and has developed an extensive network within and outside Africa. His works have influenced broader research in several ways. Some of his work has been cited in policy documents like the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) white paper on protective whistleblowers in the Public Sector in 2022 and OECD papers on the role of digitalisation in enhancing Sustainable Development Goals, among other scholarly and policy works.
Gedion has made significant contributions to the wider research and innovation community is involved in research and innovation community through his research positions within and outside African universities. For instance, he is an ESRC Peer Review College member, an NRF Peer Reviewer (South Africa’s National Research Foundation), a reviewer for the World Bank publications, and a book reviewer for academic publishers like Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury, and Routledge, among others. These are in addition to reviewing for the leading international public administration, public policy, and governance journals. He has spoken in various high-level workshops, including concerning issues in African countries. He has also co-organised several international conferences on and with organisations like the International Public Policy Association.
Further to this, Gedion is the at Afrobarometer. In this role, he is responsible for leading research communications and oral briefings, as well as engaging with practitioners, policymakers, NGOs, government agencies, and foreign embassies to demonstrate how Afrobarometer data can be used to enhance evidence-based decision-making in public policy and governance. He has also utilised this data to publish in relevant international journals focusing on policy and government performance. Additionally, Gedion is a founding member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)'s Region Epistemic Community (IREC), a policy advisory mechanism comprised of prominent scholars from IGAD member states. IREC aims to improve the integration of research evidence in the design, forecasting, and evaluation of IGAD's regional activities. He is also a member of leading international organisations and academic societies, such as the and .
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