K. Y. Amoako (born September 13, 1944 Accra) is a Ghanaian international civil servant with a five-decade career in African development.
In the early 1990s, the Bank began to shift its focus by placing greater emphasis on poverty reduction and underserved but vital economic and social development issues, such as gender equality.
To provide intellectual leadership in these areas, guide operational staff at the country-level, and collaborate more effectively with United Nations agencies and other development institutions, the Bank created the Department of Education and Social Policy in 1992.
[3] He gave Amoako a mandate to transform the institution into an influential voice for Africa and an effective player in global development.
[6] Over the past twenty years, Amoako has served on many high-level commissions and task forces with other development experts and leaders.
These task forces and commissions have tackled Africa’s current and future challenges as well as global development issues.
The book draws on his five decades of experience to offer an account of the people, policies, and institutions that have shaped Africa's post-colonial development history with a goal of learning from the past to better inform the future.
Amoako has lived this history, worked directly with governments and global leaders on issues that continue to affect African progress: financing sustainable development, moving beyond aid, industrializing and diversifying economics, closing the gender gap, getting regional integration right, and attaining accountable and transformative leadership.