Belay Begashaw
Director General, Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa
Prior to being appointed as Director General to the the Sustainable Development Goals Centre for Africa, Dr. Begashaw was the founding Director of the Columbia Global Centers for Africa. He joined Columbia University, Earth Institute (EI) in 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. Dr. 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, Dr. Begashaw has 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.