Speakers

Debebe has been serving as the Program Development and Quality Assurance Director with World Relief in Sudan since April 2017. He brings over 28 years of experience in providing strategic leadership in humanitarian and development program management across multiple organizations and countries.

He spent 14 years with World Vision Ethiopia, holding senior leadership roles including Associate Director for Regional Programs, Associate Director for Humanitarian Emergency Affairs, Regional Program Manager, and Area Development Program Manager. He also served as Senior Capacity Building Advisor for Food for the Hungry International (Ethiopia), and worked with Oxfam in Ethiopia and Uganda as an expatriate Country Humanitarian Manager. In addition, he held the role of Program Manager for Darfur States with Norwegian Church Aid (Sudan).

Debebe has extensive expertise in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating integrated multi-sector humanitarian, development, and peace programs through a nexus approach, fully aligned with donor policies and international standards. At World Relief Sudan, he leads business development (proposal design), MEAL, and program quality assurance. He has been instrumental in mainstreaming key emerging practices including Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP), conflict sensitivity, gender and age inclusiveness, environmental protection, and Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS). He played a leading role in securing humanitarian and development funding from major donors—including the then BHA/USAID, UN agencies, European government donors, as well as private and corporate donors—to support the implementation of humanitarian, development, and peace programs in Sudan.

Debebe holds an M.A. in Social Science from Eastern University (USA), a Postgraduate Diploma in Agricultural Science/Agronomy from the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Italy, and a B.Sc. in Agriculture from Addis Ababa University – Alemaya.