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Yilak Kebede
Research fellow , Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Cambridge, United States
I am bilingual (English,Chinese)urban development expert with 13 years of experience in developing countries. Currently I am a post-doc researcher at Harvard and I was a program coordinator/consultant for Bloomberg Philanthropy, UNDP on road transport, urban environment, urban housing and urban planning programs. I can relocate immediately and am available upto 60% traveling and seek challenging opportunity.
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Area of Expertise:
  • Environment, Climate, Energy, Water, Sanitation
  • Government, Governance, Reforms
  • Infrastructure, Technology, Engineering, Science
  • Monitoring, Evaluation, Policy, Research, Analysis
Professional Experience:
My work experiences are related to multipronged urban development policies, strategies, programs and projects. Among the recent one, I worked as Environmental Impact Assessment consultant for Chinese State-owned company for a 500 million USD industrial park project, which the environmental clearance certificate my assessment got has enabled the project to get finance from China EXIM. In a similar capacity, I have worked as national consultant to UNDP to prepare a project proposal for Global Climate Fund finance. In this task, along with the international consulting firm, I was able to develop two projects on Solid Waste Management and Urban Greening that costs about 200 million USD.
Furthermore, I worked as a national coordinator for the Bloomberg Global Initiative for Road Safety, which has 10 target cities worldwide. In this task, my responsibility was to coordinate the work of international consultants with local stakeholders and monitoring all three sections of the program, which are the traffic law enforcement , road engineering and the public awareness creation section. As part of my task, I usually prepare weekly and monthly progress report to the head office as well as evaluate the progress with the given indicators from Head Office.
Apart of working for the above international institutions, I have also worked as a local adviser to Ethiopian Urban Ministry on Low-Cost Housing Program and Climate Resilient Green Economy program. I was engaged in the Project Management Assessment for the Labor Intensive Urban Development Projects, i.e., Low cost housing, cobble-stone local access road, Small and Medium Scale Enterprises development.
Moreover, working with different public-sector agencies at federal (i.e ministry of urban development, ministry of transport, industry park development corporation) and city administration level (Addis Ababa Mayor office) has provided me the opportunity to explore the internal workings of the policy design and development, with an emphasis on how competing international investment interests are managed. Additionally, my interdisciplinary backgrounds in applied aspects of International Development & Public Policy, Environment and Sustainable Development, and Urban Planning has enabled me to easily communicate and work as a member of various types of professionals’ team pooled from different disciplinary background.
Education:
Initially I did my undergraduate study in the fields of architecture and urban planning that particularly covers the multi-faceted urban activities in developing countries. Further, in my postgraduate, I dwell on the social science aspect of urban studies in the framework of international development studies. Here my master’s thesis was focused: The Role of External Development Intervention in Urban Development Policy. Then, in the terminal degree, I have done PhD research on urban road transport externalities. Having had an Architecture and Urban Planning education for my Bachelor’s Degree and subsequently working in the urban development project has helped me to broadly understand the complex urban issues from social, economic and physical demand aspects.
Particularly my advanced training in public policy analysis, urban development studies, environmental modeling has provided me a strong foundation for complex research tasks. A variety of independent research projects provide evidence of my ability to complete high-quality, self-directed work. For example, I recently completed two papers using Volvo Research Education Foundation fellowship at Harvard University. In terms of methodological preparedness, I had hands on experience on utilization of qualitative as well as quantitative research methodology when I was engaged in a UN-Habitat sponsored urban infrastructure projects. Besides, I have working knowledge on GIS, Microsoft Office, SPSS, CAD. My extensive training using the above tools to collect, manage, analyze, and present a wide range of data will allow me to communicate effectively with various partners and colleagues from different profession.
As part of my postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Graduate School of Design, I have a tremendous opportunity to dedicate 14 months of my physical presence at the university to a “professional practicum.” The practicum is an opportunity for me to apply theories and skills to actual urban transportation research projects funded by Volvo Research and Education Foundation. Besides, I have conducted my own research on “designating city-region in multi-ethnically federated polity” by taking the case of Addis Ababa.
Affiliations and Achievements:
The reflection I got from Volvo Research and Education Foundation over my research achievements at Harvard was very encouraging. My fellowship provider has put my activities “We are very glad to hear that with a so tiny support from VREF, you could succeed with your activities and the production of papers” and the director was interested with my research report and he read “with great interest”. Besides, I have got different fellowships and training opportunities all over the world, i.e Europe (Germany, Italy, UK), Asia (China, India, Japan), US and Canada to develop my professional career forward and to have a menu of applicable experiences for different situations. In 2017 alone, I gave two big presentations to a very large audience at Harvard University and Peking University and this shows that I am developing my communication skill to exhibit my works. Besides, I am a member of professional associations such as Ethiopian Architects Association, China-Africa Researchers Association, World Transport Researchers’ Associations.
Available for:
  • Consulting assignments
  • Job opportunities
  • Internships / Fellowships

    Years of Experience:
    10-15 years
    Highest Qualification:
    Doctorate
    Languages:
    English, Chinese, Amharic, Tigregna
    Nationality:
    Ethiopia
    LinkedIn Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/yilak-kebede/
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