Tesfay Alemsegad is the founder of the Beles-based Production and Processing Initiative (BPPI), based in Ethiopia. Beles serves as an entry point for the ecological restoration and construction of sustainable livelihoods and food security in the semi-arid hillsides of Ethiopia. As the founder of the initiative and current project manager, he successfully crafted, planned, formulated and implemented more than 82 multi-partner sub-projects, trained 17,450 farmers, development agents and urban communities, maintained excellent community relations, and received various awards from the regional and federal authorities for innovative and impactful interventions.
His areas of expertise are food security, partnership, strategy development, community participation, asset development, sustainability and the promotion of low-input agricultural systems.
Tesfay holds a Bachelors in chemistry, a Masters in water resource & environmental management from the International Institute for Geo-Information Sciences and Earth Observation in the Netherlands, and has studied integrated water resources management at the Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland.