Gizachew Sisay Asnake

Gizachew is a team leader at UNDP Ethiopia responsible for the Inclusive Economic Transformation Unit. He has MA in development studies from Addis Ababa University as well as attended various trainings such as development finance in India and rural development in Israel. He has 20 years of diverse experience in development planning and project management in Ethiopia. His major responsibility in UNDP is to support government to create an enabling environment for businesses including MSMEs and start-ups to grow and create jobs and become contributor for the economy. In addition to interventions on policy and regulation, facilitating access to finance for SMEs and promotion of innovation and entrepreneurship for youth and women are among the major responsibilities of his unit. As part of this program, UNDP has co-created the innovative finance lab to address the access to finance gaps for MSMEs through developing innovative and alternative financial instruments. Prior to UNDP, he used to work for various organizations such as Oxfam GB, MEDA, SNV and Agriculture Transformation Agency. In ATA, he has set up about 20 farm service centers to address the agricultural inputs supply problem through a public-private partnership model. The business model has been successful and now replicated widely in Ethiopia.