Geosas

Home » About Us

General Manager

Teshome Erkineh; General Manager; MA, BSc; Disaster Risk Management Specialist

Brief Bio-Sketch: Teshome has over 28 years service in the field of agriculture, project monitoring and evaluation, planning, program and budget coordination, disaster management, vulnerability analysis, food security monitoring and early warning in Ethiopia; with educational background of BSc in agricultural economics and MA in humanitarian assistance. He has started his carrier as regional manager of the agricultural technology section of the settlement programmes in Jimma, Illubabour and Gambella in November 1980. From 1982 to 1989 he served as planning, programming and budget coordinator, project evaluation and economic research officer in the former Relief and Rehabilitation Commission (RRC), alte named, Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Agency (DPPA).

He has been working for a long time (1992- 2007) for the Ethiopian early warning system within the DPPA taking different responsibilities. He served as general manager of the Ethiopian early warning system from October 1995 to October 2007. As a manager of the Ethiopian early warning system, he had close working relationship with various Government institutions, UN-agencies, donors and NGOs in the field of food security monitoring and early warning in Ethiopia. He has particularly served and assisted both the Government and international humanitarian partners in averting major famines in Ethiopia since 1992, particularly one of the major severe droughts in recent history in the Horn of Africa in 2003.

Furthermore, he was involved in a number of consultancy services and provided training in the field of vulnerability analysis, food security monitoring and early warning and disaster management. He co.-authored the inaugural issue of the Climate and Society publication series No 1 entitled “Climate Risk Management in Africa: Learning from Practices” by the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), Columbia University, New York and the “WFP-NEPAD study on food reserves in Africa: Ethiopian Mode”; a study sponsored by World Food Program. He also works as a policy advisor for the US based livelihoods program to assist the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia DPPA on the Revision of the 1993 national policy on disaster prevention and management.

Teshome has been very successful and his achievements exemplary in the field of vulnerability analysis, food security monitoring, early warning in particular and disaster management in general has been successful and and honors in his work. He now the General Manager and also leads the Food Security and Disaster Risk Management sud-sector of GeoSAS.

Agronomy

Dr. Kidane Georgis; PhD, MSc; Agronomy

Brief Bio-Sketch: Dr. Kidane Georgis has PhD in Agronomy from the University of Adelaide, Australia; MSc in Agronomy and Soil Water Harvesting and BSc in Plant Sciences from the University of Alemaya, Ethiopia. He has over 30 years of experience on agriculture research and development in dry land ecology and has served as director of Dry land Agricultural research and Senior Advisor on research and development for the Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research. As one of the outstanding agriculture researchers in Ethiopia he:

Has an extensive experience in natural resource conservation and management, climate change and modeling, biodiversity, research strategy development;
Conducted and managed various research projects funded by different international organizations such as FAO/UNDP, Center for International Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) etc in the development of dry-land crops production including pastoral and agro-pastoral areas crop production systems;
Has been involved in capacity building in human resource development, particularly, training of research cadres at PhD, MSc, BSC levels; short term trainings; technical capacity building; advising post graduate students both nationally and regionally in Africa;
Preparation of research and development strategies for federal, regional and higher learning institutions in Ethiopia;
Developing climate change adaptation strategies for dry land areas through both developing technologies and documenting of time tested traditional practices of the farming communities;
Provide consultancy service in-country and abroad on research and development mainly in dry land agricultural and organized several workshops including the IGAD/ECA international workshop on food and feed security in the arid and semi-arid areas of the IGAD sub-region.

He has also close working relationship with regional and international centers such as the CIAT, ICRISAT, CIMMYT and regional bodies such as IGAD and ASARECA as leader of integrated drought management projects in Eastern and Southern Africa.

He has published more than 38 scientific articles, procedures, book chapters and abstracts on dry land agronomy, crop selection and development, development of dry land farming technologies, soil water conservation, crop and soil organic matter. He is currently in charge of the agricultural and rural development sub-sector of GeoSAS.

Ecology and Resource Conservation

Associate Professor Woldeamlak Bewket; PhD; Production Ecology & Conservation

Brief Bio-Sketch: Ass. Professor Woldeamlak Bewket has PhD in production ecology and resource conservation from Wageningen University, the Netherlands and MSc in Geography from Addis Ababa University (AAU). He was one of the honor students of the 1994 graduates completing his first degree in Geography from Addis Ababa University with distinction & College’s Medal.

He has of extensive experience in different capacities in the academia and research. He has been with Addis Ababa University for over 15 years as a graduate Assistant, lecturer and assistant professor in the Department of Geography. He is currently working in the capacity of Associate Professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, with adjunct position as Associate Professor at College of Development Studies. He has supervised 40 MA/MSc and two PhD students in the university. In addition to his academic work, he provides consultancy services in the area of environment, climate change and tourism master plan development for local and international agencies. He has published his research work in more than 35 reports, books, journal articles and abstracts. He is an active member of the Environmental Society of Ethiopia, Association of Ethiopian Geographers and Organization for Social Science Research in Eastern & Southern Africa (OSSREA)- Ethiopia. He is currently responsible for the overall coordination and management of the Ecosystem and Climate Change sub-sector of GeoSAS.

Public Health Specialist

Dr. Yemane Ye-ebiyo; MSc, DSc; Public Health Specialist

Brief Bio-Sketch: Between 1986 and 1997, Dr Yemane Ye-ebiyo had taken over different responsibilities at the National Malaria and other Vector Borne Diseases Control Program in the Ministry of Health, Ethiopia. As an expert and unit head in this program, he was responsible for coordinating nationwide surveys and control operations against tropical parasitic infections, advising the Federal Ministry of Health on malaria vector control policies, training of health professional and preparation of manuals and guidelines. In 2003 Dr Yemane completed his Master’s and Doctoral degree education at Harvard University, in the field of infectious diseases, concentrating on malaria and other infectious diseases. Since then, he has been working as a consultant to UN and other international agencies. From 2004 to 2010 he was country coordinator of an international NGO under the Earth Institute at Columbia University, NY, working on malaria, health systems and integrated rural development – the millennium villages’ project. He has a wide range of experience on the Ethiopian health extension program, prevention of malaria epidemics, prevention and control of other tropical diseases and health systems development. Dr Yemane has several scientific publications on malaria, other infectious diseases and health systems and participates in a number of national and international forums on different health issues. He is an active member of several professional associations and is the current chairman of the coalition against malaria in Ethiopia (CAME), an umbrella organization of NGOs, civil society organizations, the public and private sector working against malaria. He is currently in charge of the Health and Nutrition sub-sector of GeoSAS.

Demography

Endalkachew Alamnew MA; Demography

Brief Bio-Sketch: Mr. Endalkachew Alamnew has MA,Degree in Demography from Addis Ababa University. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in a wide range of subjects that include disaster risk assessment and management, food security analysis, vulnerability analysis and mapping, early warning systems, contingency planning, targeting using the SPHERE minimum standards, emergency needs assessments, project impact assessments, livelihood studies, humanitarian and/or development programming, socio-economic and demographic surveys, nutrition assessments and surveys, gender studies, project monitoring and evaluation, Geographic Information System (GIS) and remote sensing, training facilitation, capacity building and networking.

He was employed by the UN World Food Program (WFP) in Ethiopia and other countries for about ten years. He also worked for USIAD FEWS-NET Ethiopia office as country representative and the Central Statistical Authority (CSA) as computer programmer, researcher and demographer. He has an excellent capacity in coordination, management, collaboration and working in partnership with various local and international institutions in the field of disaster management. He is currently a senior livelihood and food security specialist in the Disaster and Food Security sub-sector of GeoSAS.

Disaster and Risk Management

Zewdu Abera; BSc; Statistician; Disaster and risk management expert

Brief Bio-Sketch: Mr. Zewdu Abera is a graduate from Addis Ababa University (AAU) holding B.Sc. degree in Statistics. Currently, he is also attending distance learning education for his Masters in Economics at Indra Gandi National Open University. He has also participated in a number of training programs in the fields of early warning and food security monitoring and disaster risk management activities.

He has worked for more than 20 years in different government offices as statistician, planning unit head, disaster area assessment team leader, acting head of the early warning department and senior data analyst. During his stay in the DPPA he has played an important role in field of data collection and compilation on different socio-economic issues, early warning and food security monitoring activities, nutrition and livelihoods surveys disaster area assessment and preparation of technical report. Recently he has served as a focal person for implementation of the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) representing DPPA. He has given different training programs in the field of early warning and food security monitoring activities for staff working in early warning units of government and non-governmental organizations. He has worked also as a consultant in coordinating and managing nutrition surveys. He is currently a disaster risk management and food security specialist in GeoSAS and coordinates a project called ISAC implemented under the leadership of VITO and funded by European Commission.

Computer Science and Engineering; ICT

Mr. Deres Tesfaye: MSc in Computer Science and Engineering; ICT Expert

Brief Bio-Sketch: Mr. Deres Tesfayeis a well known expert in the ICT industry in Ethiopia with more than 20 years experience. He holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering and MSc in computer science from IIT Bombay, India. He has directed, designed and managed the development and implementation of a range of original and successful Enterprise Resource Planning Systems that are widely deployed and functioning throughout the country in both business enterprises and government offices. Most of the modules of these systems are built as both web-based (run in internet browsers from web servers) and MS Windows-based platforms to cater to the needs of both small as well as large enterprises. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and IEEE Computer Society. He is currently a member of Ethiopian Information Technology Professionals Association. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Ethiopian Knowledge and Technology Transfer Society. He is a partner of GeoSAS and is responsible for the overall coordination of database design and management and information technology of the company.

Remote Sensing and GIS

Seyfu Bekele; MSc, BA; Applied Geography in Remote Sensing and GIS

Brief Bio-Sketch: Seyfu Bekele is our GIS and Remote Sensing expert. He obtained his MSc in Remote Sensing and GIS from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia and BA in applied Geography from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Seyfu has experience in GIS and RS data preparation, processing, GIS database development, and spatial analysis and modeling. He has also training in various GIS and RS software applications such as ArcView, ArcGIS, ArcInfo, and ERDAS IMAGINE from FUGRO MAPS and FAO_GLCN (Global Land Cover Network).

He is currently a GIS and Remote Sensing applications specialist in GeoSAS and coordinates a project called GMES for Africa: Regional Network for Information Exchange and Training in Emergencies (GARNET-E) implemented under the leadership of Infoterra UK and funded by European Commission. Seyfu has extensive experience in GIS and RS data preparation, processing, GIS database development, and spatial analysis and modeling.