Prof. Mary Boatemaa Setrana is the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Research Chair on Forced Displacement in Anglophone West Africa and an Associate Professor of Migration and Social Change at the University of Ghana. She also serves as Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, University of Ghana. Prof. Setrana is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) Centre of Excellence on Migration and Mobility, and the Advisory Board of Boston University’s Centre on Forced Displacement.

She is currently the lead facilitator for the revision of Ghana’s National Labour Migration Policy and previously led the development of Botswana’s National Migration Policy, in addition to contributing to the facilitation of Ghana’s Diaspora Policy. Prof. Setrana has led or co-led several international research projects supported by the European Union (EU), United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), and United Nations (UN) agencies, including the Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) project and the Resilience Against Climate Change - Social Transformation Research and Policy Advocacy (REACH-STR) initiative.

At the African Union (AU) level, she developed Gender-Responsive Labour Migration Policy Modules and Guidelines/Checklists for AU Member States, funded by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and led the evaluation of the AU Migration Policy Framework, supported by the German Development Cooperation (GIZ). Alongside her research and policy work, Prof. Setrana is deeply committed to mentorship and capacity building, training early-career researchers, supervising PhD and graduate students, and leading workshops that equip the next generation of African migration scholars to bridge research, policy, and practice.

Her research interests span migration governance, forced displacement, gender and labour migration, return migration and reintegration, and climate-related (im)mobilities.