Medhin, Haileselassie

Haileselassie Medhin is the Africa Director of Strategy and Partnerships at WRI. Based at the Europe Regional Office, he is also the representative of WRI Africa in Europe.

Before taking this role, Haileselassie served as the Ethiopia Country Director of WRI, co-leading the development of WRI’s new Africa strategy.

Prior to joining WRI, Haileselassie worked as the Director of Institutional Development and Senior Research Fellow at the Environment for Development (EfD) in Sweden, an initiative that promotes the development of policy research centers in the global south at the intersection of environment and development.

Haileselassie led the establishment of the Environment and Climate Research Center (ECRC) in Ethiopia in 2015 and served as the center’s director until 2018, overseeing its rapid mobilization into a respected policy-research hub on Ethiopia’s Climate Resilient Green Economy (CRGE) vision.

Haileselassie’s own research has focused on the application of behavioral and experimental economics on issues of environment and development, and increasingly on the challenges and opportunities for achieving green and climate resilient growth in developing countries.

Haileselassie received his Doctoral and Masters degrees in Economics from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and his Bachelor's degree from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.

He is married to Elizabeth Gebresilassie and they have two children, Zema and Remhay.