H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa Adela is Minister of Planning and Development of Ethiopia.
She is at the centre of the country's key development planning and policymaking office and exerts leadership in economic policies, plans and programs, including the crafting and implementation of Ethiopia's home-grown economic reform and its ten-year development plan.
She is core member of the National Macroeconomic Committee, the government's representative in the Independent Council of Economic Advisors, and a board member of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia.
Dr. Fitsum was previously a professor for more than a decade at Hawassa University in Ethiopia, where she conducted several impactful interdisciplinary studies focusing on environment and development, technology adoption, and poverty analysis with a focus on institutional factors.