Dr. George P. Wak is a demographer by training. He attended Navrongo Secondary School from 1982 to 1989. After completing his secondary education (Sixth form), he started his working career as a fieldworker from 1991 to August 1993 with the Ghana Vitamin A Supplementation Trial (Ghana VAST) – the trial that paved the way for the Navrongo Health Research Centre (NHRC). After working for a while, he proceeded to the University of Ghana to pursue his first degree and graduated in 1997. He returned to the NHRC as a Research Assistant, with the Navrongo Health and Demographic Surveillance (NHDSS) unit. He later secured a Wellcome Trust Fellowship for his Master’s degree in Population Studies in 2001 at the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) at the University of Ghana, and graduated in 2002. He returned and assumed the responsibility as the assistant head of the HDSS unit where his major task included supervision of fieldworkers and supervisors, generation of data output, writing of reports and representing the unit at meetings, both local and abroad.
In 2013 he went to RIPS to pursue his PhD in Population Studies and graduated in 2018. Prior to graduation, he secured a British Commonwealth Fellowship for a three month post-doctorate in the University of Southampton in the UK. He resumed full responsibility again as the unit head in January 2018. As the substantive head, his task included the day to day running of the unit, with the ultimate aim of ensuring that data collected is of high quality. He was also tasked to see to the data needs of other projects.
In addition to the above, he has provided consultancy services in the establishment and running of HDSSs to a number of HDSS centres including those of Kintampo and Dodowa, all in Ghana, Nahuche in Zamfara State, Calababar and Obafemi Awolowo (Ile Ife) Universities, all in Nigeria. He also provided consultancy services to the Damongo Catholic Dioceses in the assessment of the Damongo Diocesan Health Sector. Recently he has been involved and in charge of the training and monitoring of CHPS Coordinators (nurses) in the then Brong Ahafo, Central and Volta regions for the mortality evaluation of the new malaria vaccine implementation. Currently, he is coordinating the enumeration of the Builsa North and South Districts for the establishment of an HDSS for the implementation of the EPI-MAL-003 malaria vaccine trial. His research interest is in the area of migration and its socio-demographic consequences, with particular reference to child health and morality. He is also interested in household dynamics and how they affect health and socio-demographic wellbeing of people. He also has interest in longitudinal data analysis.