An Adventure Beyond Social Mobility

About the Book

'An adventure beyond social mobility' portrays the importance of human resource development as a life pursuit. One objective is to document for my family information about my roots, educational struggles, and my adult life. The account, a legacy to my family and Africa, sends a message to other children born into similar socio-economic and cultural environment that hard work ultimately yields dividends. Another objective is to share with scholars interested in African development efforts by the international community to foster such development focusing on the population sector. The contribution under reference is not limited to personal publications; it also includes  the recommendations from conferences, meetings, seminars, studies, symposia, and workshops organized under varying auspices of the international community. A final objective is to highlight key factors accounting for my social mobility in relation to those reported in social science literature. In terms of content, chapter one outlines the way of life of people in my village, their survival strategies, their traditional beliefs and religion, and cultural background as aspects of “my roots”. Chapter two discusses my educational training experiences. The focus of chapter three is the re-entry problems that I encountered on returning to Nigeria from studies overseas and my initial contribution to African population and development literature. Chapter four highlights the evolution of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the development of African regional population program within the framework of the African census program. The next three chapters (five-seven) capture details of the main activities within the region in the course of my working for the ECA. While chapter eight outlines factors that have facilitated my upward mobility and relates the latter to those generally reported in social science literature as influencing social mobility, chapter nine focusses on my ongoing retirement.

About the Author

Ita Ekanem was born in Ntan Mbat, Nigeria, where he received his early education prior to graduate studies in the United States. Early in life, he had cause to make contributing to African population and development literature, a lifetime pursuit. His first Book, The 1963 Nigerian Census: A Critical Appraisal, is a standard reference for experts planning censuses in African countries. On attaining a Senior Lecturer status at his undergraduate alma mater (University of Ife) in 1975, he joined the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (November 1978) where he served in several capacities and made extensive contribution to African population and development literature until his retirement in February 1999. His second Book, Population and Development Planning: An Integrated Approach is an indispensable reference for policy makers, planners, scholars, and researchers interested in the relationship between population and development planning. His other contributions include chapters in Books, Journal articles, and Guidelines/Manuals for integrating population factors in the national development plans of African countries. Since retirement, he has provided consulting services to several international agencies including African Union, African Development Bank, and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. He is the founder and current president of Ekanem and Associates Consulting Inc. (www.ekaci.com) as well as Vice President/Treasurer of Friends of AIDS Orphans in Africa (www.aids-orphans-africa.com) based in Florida and North Carolina (USA). In the course of his distinguished career, he was Scholar of the Nigerian Federal Government while at the University of Ife (1964-66), Fellow of African American Institute while at Brown University (1967-71), Visiting Population Council Fellow to Office of Population Research, Princeton University (1975-76) and in 1996, Brown University honored him with a Distinguished Graduate Alumnus Award. Lifetime member of Nigerian Economic Society, Ita Ekanem is also an active member of International Union for the Scientific Study of Population.