Prof. Nana Tanko

Prof. Nana Tanko serves as Executive Director Victims Support Fund (VSF) responsible for all accounting, operational and administrative operations of VSF. She is vastly experienced in development and humanitarian work and has a solid background in academics following years of continuous engagement in Teaching and Research in several Universities.

Prior to her appointment as the Executive Director, Prof. Tanko served as Director of Programme Victims Support Fund for five and half years, leading the formulation and implementation of thematic interventions to recover and rebuild the lives of victims of insurgency and armed conflict to restore hope and stability. She came to VSF after co-founding the set-up of the African Policy Research (Katampe Hill) Institute (APRI) as an independent think tank committed to TRUTH as the basis for expanding the boundaries of the application of knowledge to policymaking in African development. Prof Tanko worked for over ten years with the United States headquartered, George Soros Network of Foundations, specifically, with the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) based in Dakar, Senegal as Executive Director. Before rising to the top of OSIWA’s hierarchy, she served as Board Member and the Director of the Nigeria Country Office. She has built her career in Academia and International Development. She has still maintained her first love – teaching – as she concurrently holds the position of Professor in the Department of Sociology at Bingham University Abuja.

Through the years, Prof.  Tanko has been a Gender Activist and an advocate for a strong Civil Society and has held leadership positions in several Civil Society Networks and Organizations. She has also worked as a Consultant to several Government Departments and Agencies, as well as Development Partners at the Multilateral and Bilateral levels in development programme/policy formulation and implementation with a strong emphasis on people-centred strategies and community-driven development.

Prof. Tanko holds a Doctorate Degree in Development with Specialization in Population and Gender Studies from the School of Development Studies of the University of East Anglia, Norwich England. She also holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Demography from the London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London and an Honors Degree in Sociology from the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria.