Belay Begashaw biography

Prior to being appointed as Director General to the SDGC/A, Begashaw was the founding Director of the Columbia Global Centers for Africa. He joined Columbia University, Earth Institute (EI), in January 2009, where he served as Senior Agriculture Policy Specialist and Director of MDG center for Eastern and Southern Africa. He also has served as the Associate Director of the Agriculture and Food Security Center of the EI.

Begashaw has over 20 years of experience in agriculture extension and rural development, ranging from a grass-roots development agent to the Minister of Agriculture for Ethiopia.In the past ten years; he has also done extensive consulting and advisory work to several public and international organizations in the area of food security, poverty reduction and investment, climate change and resilience building, development finance and governance.

Begashaw earned his MPA degree from Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, M.Sc. from University of Reading and a B.Sc. from Addis Ababa University, Almay College of Agriculture. He also holds a Ph.D. in agricultural policy from Texas A&M University where he was a Borlaug Fellow.