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Started his career as a journalist in 2008, Gizaw Legesse had the opportunity to comprehend regional and national political and social contexts, as well as to gain tangible experience in communications and strong connection with the media community. Later, in 2014, he joined AgriProFocus – a worldwide agriculture and food platform with 12 country networks in Africa alone. He was the Communication Facilitator for the AgriProFocus Ethiopia. In addition to creating and managing contents of the online platform and affiliated social media pages, he organized variety of events, such as Agribusiness Fairs, Business Drinks (B2B), conferences and workshops. Preparing regular e-newsletters, writing stories, conducting interviews, authoring publications, and designing and producing communication and visibility materials were also his tasks for over four years.
Afterwards, he became the Knowledge Management and Communication consultant of an international firm since 2018. It was an opportunity for him to engage with multiple international donors and national development actors in various projects. From short term assignments of documenting and producing lessons for development interventions to long term programmes of knowledge management implementations, he engaged in over 30 projects for the past few years. He worked as documentation and communication expert on the EU funded RESET Plus Innovation Fund until December 2022, and undertaken a short assignment for the EUD Ghana sponsored Ghana-EU Agribusiness Platform as a content developer and website designer.
Gizaw has LLB Degree in Law and MBA in project management concentration. Most importantly, throughout his career, he has taken several trainings that has finetuned his expertise in communication field with all relevant skills and tools. Gizaw Legesse is an all-in-one communication expert: graphic designer, video editor, photographer, web designer, event organizer, and an excellent writer and content creator.
Mahder Akalu is a highly skilled communication, research, and project coordination expert with over 11 years of experience in marketing, gender studies, education, and media. She has worked extensively with consultancy firms, national and international development organizations, and research institutions.
As a Young Expert (YEPer) in Agro-Food Batch 18, she has received international training in the Netherlands on communications, entrepreneurship, intercultural leadership, and contextualization. Mahder has a strong background in media relations, event organization, stakeholder engagement, and research, particularly in qualitative and quantitative data collection, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs).
She has served as an Associate Consultant at Impact for Sustainability (I4S) and Ankuar Data, leading various projects in communication, gender research, and monitoring & evaluation. Additionally, she has been a TV program host for Meqenet, a show by Setaweet Movement, advocating for Ethiopian feminism and social change.
Her educational background includes a Master’s in Documentary Linguistics and Culture, Bachelor’s in Folklore from Addis Ababa University and an ongoing Bachelor’s in Business Management from Bahir Dar University. Mahder is fluent in Amharic and English and has expertise in social media management, content production, translation, and project implementation.
With a dynamic and results-driven approach, Mahder is passionate about driving impact in gender equality, development communication, and capacity-building initiatives.