Born in March 1951 to cocoa farmers in the Ashanti region of Ghana, Ambassador Kumi had her elementary schooling at the Domiabra Presbyterian Primary School and Mmofratro Girls Boarding School in Kumasi. She went on to attend Wesley Girls High School and St. Monica’s Girls Secondary School in Cape Coast and Mampong- Ashanti respectively. She was later educated at the Universite d’Aix-Marseilles and Universite Paris, Sceaux, where she obtained her first degree in International Relations (Diplome d’Etudes Politiques. Specialisation: Relations Internationales) in 1974 and Post Graduate Degree (Diplome d’Etudes Superieures Specialisees 3e Cycle) in 1985 respectively.
Upon getting married in 1974, she moved to India where she obtained a Master’s Degree in Political Science at the Kirori Mal College in the University of Delhi and Post Graduate Diplomas in International Law and Law of International Institutions at the India Society of International Law in1976. She entered the Ghana Foreign Service on her return from India, in September, 1976 and served in various capacities at the Legal Bureau, Economic Relations Bureau, International Organisations and Conferences Bureau, Information Bureau, Europe Bureau, the Secretariat for the 10th Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Conference in Accra where she won a Gold Watch Award from the Head of State for outstanding performance during the NAM Ministerial conference held in Accra in 1991, Personnel Bureau and the Accra International Conference Centre. In April 2000, as an acting Director, she earned recognition and was entrusted with the responsibilities of Supervising Director for the Political and Economic Department of the Ministry which comprised Africa and OAU Bureau, Europe Bureau, Americas Bureau, Middle East and Asia Bureau, International Organisations and Conferences Bureau, Legal Bureau and Economic Trade and Investments Bureau.
She has also participated in a number of major International Conferences including the UN Conference on Succession of State in Respect of Treaties, Vienna, 1978 the 1st UN Conference on Trafficking of Illicit Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Vienna, 1987 and the 1st UN High –Level Plenary on UN Reform, New York, 2005, several Sessions of UN General Assembly, New York, two Franco- African Summits in Paris and Mali as well as in the Commonwealth Heads of State and Government Meeting, Malta- December 2005.
Ambassador Kumi has had professional diplomatic training at the Diplomatic Training Institute in the University of Nairobi with practical tours in Berlin, London, Geneva and the UN Headquarters in New York; and at the Institut International d’Administration Publique in Paris, France where she received her certificate with distinction (avec les felicitations du jury) and was attached to the French Embassy in Japan from April – June 1985. She has served in the following Ghana’s diplomatic Missions :- in New York, as Ghana’s delegate to the Legal (6th) Committee and the Social & Humanitarian (3rd) Committee of the UN General Assembly; in Copenhagen as Counsellor and the Head of Chancery with concurrent responsibilities for Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland; in Moscow as Minister-Counsellor and Head of Chancery with concurrent responsibilities for all the Commonwealth of Independent States i.e. former Soviet Republics; travelled extensively to Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Latvia, Uzbekistan and Georgia; In Addis Ababa as Deputy Head of Mission; and in Abuja as the Acting High Commissioner for three years. She returned from Abuja in November, 2004, to assume the position of Supervising Director of the Legal, Multilateral and Passports Department. She was appointed Ghana’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the European Union in May 2006 where she acquired vast knowledge and conference experience in the relations between teh European Union and African, Caribbean adn Pacific Group of Countries. She retired from the Ghana Foreign Service in March 2011. She is married with five daughters including twins.
I-2DP Governing Board
I – 2DP has a Governing Board under the Chairmanship of Ambassador James Victor Gbeho, a distinguished diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ghana and immediate past President of ECOWAS Commission. Other illustrious members include Dr Mrs Mary Chinery-Hesse, former Deputy Director-General of the International Labour Organisation [ILO] and current member of the AU Panel of the Wise; Dr. Lawrence Victor Essien, Professor of Law, Fordham University, New York; Ambassador Francis A. Tsegah, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), Accra, Ambassador Nana Bema Kumi, Executive Director of I-2DP and Mrs. Ama Kumi Thomas, Secretary to the Board.