Catherine Ngugi

Catherine Ngugi is the Project Director of Open Educational Resources (OER Africa), a Saide Initiative. Prior to holding this post, she established the African Virtual University’s Research & Innovation Facility (RIF) in January 2005 and managed it until September 2007. During this period, the RIF hosted two OER projects and launched a Pan-African pilot study on the use of OER in African universities. Catherine holds an M.A. from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Catherine began her career in the private sector, working for a multinational manufacturer. In 1997, she relocated to Dakar, Senegal, to work with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), where she initiated and coordinated a grants management system and designed the CODESRIA Endowment Plan. Upon joining Oxfam GB, she conducted regional training sessions (Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania) in project sustainability across the organization’s regional group and facilitated the funding by the Swedish International Donor Agency (SIDA) of the Oxfam GB West Africa Regional Girls’ Education Program. 

A Rockefeller Associate of the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town, Catherine has worked as a consultant in higher education and the arts to various international organizations headquartered in Nairobi. Her work has been published inKwani and in the Journal of African Cultural Studies. She has also co-edited various publications including the eight-country report on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and Higher Education in Africa commissioned by the Centre for Educational Technology (CET) for the Educational Technology Initiative of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (PHEA).