Choosing Public Service - Charity Yekple
"I have this knowing," Charity says. "That my life is contributing to the bigger picture."
She didn't come to EPL to find that knowing. She brought it with her. What she needed was somewhere to put it to work.
She studied law. Then she realized she didn't want to be a practicing lawyer.
"I wanted to be where I could measure the impact of my work. Public policy was more impactful to me, as compared to litigation."
She found EPL. She got in. And then she got posted to economics. "I wondered if I'd be able to make the most of it. My field was law, not finance." Her supervisor at the Ministry shrugged the doubt off. He said, “The law is a support service for the work this Ministry does. If you are here, be part of the work.”
She is.
Today, when Charity reflects on her fellowship journey, she remembers her assignment in the Chief Director's office at Ghana's Ministry of Finance. One of the assignments she carried out: coordinating the Government of Ghana's response to the IMF's Governance Diagnostic Assessment Report. Key government institutions - the Ghana Revenue Authority, Financial Intelligence Center, the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the Judicial Service, and others - submit their responses to Ghana's corruption vulnerabilities, as assessed by the IMF.
Charity's role in support of the Ministry’s mandate was to make sure those responses reflect the true position of Ghana. "When external institutions assess us, they cannot have a full understanding. If we don't take our role to report seriously, that has an impact on us."
Currently, she supports policy advisory on Infrastructure.
In 20 years, she sees herself as Chief Economic Officer. The policy implementations she dreams of: a public transport system that doesn't run on small Toyota minibuses. A functioning multimodal transport system with e.g trains across regions. The kind of infrastructure her grandchildren will use and not even know to thank her for.
The knowing didn't come from nowhere. Charity grew up in a family that served. Her father was a military officer. Her mother served as a Veterinary extension officer, and they both encouraged a life of service. "Maybe that is where I picked it up."
EPL didn't give Charity her purpose. It gave her a pathway to use it.
