ETHIOPIA - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Country Manager, African Develoment Bank
- Development Economist
Abdul B. Kamara is a development economist with over two decades of professional experience in development policy research, development financing and policy work geared towards Africa's economic transformation. He holds a Ph.D. (magna cum laude) in agricultural economics and rural development from the University of Göttingen in Germany. Kamara has further professional education in Regulation of Financial Markets from the London School of Economics, and executive education in Public Financial Management from Harvard University (Kennedy School). He has served in technical, senior managerial and high-level representational positions, including 6 years at the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), 13 years at the African Development Bank (AfDB), and one year as Assistant Secretary General at the United Nations, serving as Deputy Joint Special Representative (DJSR) for the AU-UN Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Thus over two decades, Kamara has deepened his knowledge and strategic thinking about models for Africa's economic transformation and development options.
At the Bank, he has served as Senior Agricultural Economist in the Agriculture and Agro- Industry Department for 2 years (2004-2007) and 4 years as Manager of the Research Division (2007-2010), and most recently for nearly for 6 years as Resident Representative for Sudan where he plays a lead role in setting the Bank's strategic priorities and takes responsibility for the investment operations (2011-2017). His responsibility in Sudan included South Sudan for two years until end 2012. As Research Manager, he led a team of professionals conducting research on Africa's contemporary development challenges, including the global the food and the financial crisis, Africa's competitiveness, economic transformation and growth prospects.
Earlier in his career, Kamara held various technical positions at key Centres of the CGIAR, notably as Research Scientist at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), working on water resource policies in Southern Africa and later West Africa, and as joint Research Associate at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI, Addis Ababa), working on livestock and land use policies in the Southern Rangelands of Ethiopia. In 2002, he became the 1st Sierra Leonean (and 4th African) laureate of Germany's prestigious Josef G. Knoll Science Award 2002 for his research work at the CGIAR. In 2006 he won the Bank's Vice Presidency Merit Award 2006 for his contribution to Agricultural Sector Operations and in 2016 his team won the AfDB President's INNOPitch Award 2016 for thought leadership.
Dr. Alebachew is a businessperson. He earned his Doctor of Transformational Leadership (DTL)/PhD in Organizational Transformation from Bakke Graduate University in the US and his global MBA in Green Energy and Sustainable Businesses from Bologna Business School in Italy. In addition to that, he got his MSc. in Land Resource Management from Mekelle University.
After working for different international NGOs for more than a decade and half, he established his own gemstone export company here in Ethiopia. Currently, he is running his own company and exporting different gemstones such as Emerald, Opal, Sapphire, Ruby and other. His long-term plan is, therefore, to expand his gemstone export business worldwide and promote the different gemstones we have in this country.
Dr. Kebede Belete is a geologist (PhD, Austria; MPhil, UK; BSc, Ethiopia) with more than 25 years of experience in both the Government and private sectors. He has worked on exploration projects for the Ethiopian Ministry of Mines, Golden Prospect Mining Company, Minerva Resources, Nyota Minerals, KEFI Minerals and Tulu Kapi Gold Mines S.C (TKGM) in roles including Exploration Manager and Country Manager. Dr Kebede also serves as Deputy Chairman of KEFI Minerals Ethiopia Limited and a Director of its subsidiary Director of TKGM. He has been involved with the Tulu Kapi gold project for more than 10 years and is Ethiopian industry representative on the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Job Titles:
- Mining Specialist
- Potash Mining Specialist, Yara Dallol
Henok Tsegaye is currently working as a mining specialist, and site Manager in Yara Dallol BV, Dallol, Afar, Ethiopia.
He received his bachelor's degree in Earth Science (Geology) from Addis Ababa University, and is also M.Sc. graduate class of 2019 in Mining Geology from Mekele university.
Job Titles:
- Project Director of the Strengthening Education for Mining Project ( STEM ) Project
Mr. Persaud has a wide range of experience in building alliances, facilitation of multi-stakeholder problem solving processes and policy engagement, institutional change processes, and rural development and mining livelihood strategy formulation and evaluation. He is very experienced in facilitating social learning and consensus on critical issues based on the diverse and nuanced views of different stakeholders. Through this process, he facilitates strong relations between governmental, NGO and private sector stakeholders for cooperation, collaboration and complementarity as the basis for coordinated action.