Takyiwa Danso Email & Phone Number

United Kingdom

Lead, develop and deliver Sightsavers policy analysis on education with a focus on the inclusion of children and young people with disabilities. Lead engagement with key external stakeholders including the donor governments (FCDO), national coalitions including the Send My Friend to School UK coalition, and multilateral organisations including the Global Partnership for Education. Collaborate with stakeholders and engage in policy development processes to influence the inclusion of disability inclusive education principles and international development policies.

Haywards Heath, England, United Kingdom

Sightsavers works in over 15 countries to strengthen education systems and remove barriers that prevent children with disabilities from accessing education. Through our coalitions and partnerships we work to strengthen policy frameworks, education sector plans and donor commitments to promote inclusive education. As part of the Policy Team I conduct high quality policy analysis and generate evidence to deliver Sightsavers policy objectives towards inclusive education, and address issues that impact children’s rights to education, particularly girls and children with disabilities. This includes producing effective policy outputs internally and externally, and representing Sightsavers at relevant external forums to disseminate evidenced based analysis and influence policy change at various levels. I engage with key education stakeholders, including the Global Partnership for Education, multilaterals (World Bank), UN agencies (UNICEF, UNESCO, UNGEI), international donors and national governments, to ensure delivery on their commitments towards disability inclusive development and inclusive education. I am also co-Chair of Send My Friend to School's Policy and Parliamentary Working Group, where I build on Sightsavers’ expertise to ensure inclusive education and the delivery of SDG 4 remains core to Send My Friends campaigns. I am also chair of the Racial Diversity Focus Group, supporting wider work towards organisational change on issues of racial diversity and inclusion.

Co-lead on the work of SMF's policy and parliamentary working group (PPWG) in developing policy recommendations for annual schools campaign, broader PPWG strategy and engagement with the national/international education sector. Send My Friend to School is a UK civil society coalition of international development NGOs, teachers’ unions and charities.

I started Power in Pieces as a way to express my experiences as a Black woman working in the global development sector through the medium of collage. Motivated by a want to challenge unjust systems, I am continually exploring and learning about how to centre the voices of marginalised groups in decision-making spaces and processes to ensure meaningful inclusion. Through collaging, I hope to inspire reflection with others and create opportunities to tackle difficult conversations head-on that will eventually lead towards positive change.

Member of the REDI Collective advisory board, as Creative and Reflective Coordinator.

London, United Kingdom

Managed inclusive education programmes with the organisation’s longest running partner, Ugandan Society for Disabled Children (USDC), and Action Network for the Disabled in Kenya. With a detailed approach to grant management and donor compliance, I developed specialist knowledge on disability inclusion for children and youth within the East African context, primarily through promoting the ‘Child-to-Child’ and ‘Inclusive Sports’ methodology. Responsibilities included: Project and grant management of medium to large institutionally funded social inclusion projects including overseeing the completion of ‘Sports for Inclusion: Changing the Game for Disabled Children’ project (Comic Relief; £175k) in Kenya.Financial management of project budgets, annual reporting, maintaining 100% donor compliance as well strengthening donor relationships. Facilitated capacity building efforts for AbleChildAfrica’s partners to support skills and organisational development in inclusive safeguarding, communications and MELDeveloped high-quality funding proposals using a participatory approach to project design, MEL and budgeting. Successful grants include: DFID UKAID Direct – Inclusive education extension in Uganda (£500k); Laureus Foundation - Sexual reproductive health and sports pilot in Kenya (£30k)

London, United Kingdom

I participated in quarterly board meetings to contribute youth perspectives on organisational and programme delivery. My ambassadorial responsibilities included engaging with VSO alumni network (volunteers, international staff), and external partners including presenting to Shadow Cabinet International Development Ministers, to promote the voices and needs of young people. My counterpart and I contributed to the review and development of VSO’s Youth Position Paper (2019) and global youth engagement research making recommendations on how to fully engage youth in programming, volunteering and governance. We created online media content (blogs, videos, social media stories) as outreach to the VSO youth alumni network.

London, United Kingdom

Al-Khair Foundation is a UK Based humanitarian organisation working to deliver emergency response and sustainable development programmes worldwide. I worked within the International Programmes department and was responsible for overseeing field offices in East Africa and South East Asia for programmes in WASH, Health, Livelihoods and Education. My role included - Project management, developing proposals and budgets, capacity building country office staff to standardise reporting systems. - Led inter-departmental liaisons for the East Africa famine/drought response and coordinated the delivery across four countries.- Supported senior management and field offices to seek and develop new partnerships with relevant stakeholders.- Produced written communications materials, research papers, case studies and social media content for internal and external use.- Supported CEO as acting PA, to oversee administrative internal and external correspondence within the CEO’s office.

London, United Kingdom

Global One 2015 are a Muslim women-led NGO, based in the UK, but working in Africa and Asia to fight poverty through women leadership and participation. As the Africa Programmes Intern, I worked with the Programmes Manager to create projects in GO2015's three key focus areas of WASH, Maternal Health and Agriculture. My responsibilities included proposal writing, researching project ideas, preparing promotional and learning material, contributing to blogs, social media and general administration support.

Ma Development Studies

Bachelor Of Science (Bsc)