Dr. Yitbarek Kidane Woldetensay
Developmental Evaluation Lead
Dr. Yitbarek Kidane Woldetensay brings 18 years of experience in project monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning in fields of international development, nutrition, and public health. For more than 10 years, he has been working for international development organizations including Tufts University, Save the Children International, Nutrition International, Big-Win Philanthropy, and Menschen fur Menschen Foundation evaluating USAID and DFID funded projects. He has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative evaluation design, data collection tools design and validation, research team training, field supervision, data quality assurance, research partnership, and overall research project management. Dr. Woldetensay is currently serving as the Developmental Evaluator Lead on a 5-year Developmental Evaluation for USAID/Ethiopia’s disaster risk management portfolio where he leads a team of 3 other staff in the identification and management of contributing or new evaluative or data collection needs as they arise and supports opportunities to help clients use the collected data for better planning and decision-making. Prior to joining Headlight, Dr. Woldetensay provided both curative and preventive health services for more than four years in rural Ethiopia. He also has teaching experience at Jimma University where he served as the instructor for courses including Health Education, Health Promotion Models and Theories, and Qualitative Research Methods. Dr. Woldetensay holds a Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Hohenheim University in Germany, a Master’s of Public Health in Health Education and Health Promotion from Jimma University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Public Health from Dilla University in Ethiopia.
Esrael Woldeeyesus
Developmental Evaluation Lead
Esrael has a Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) and BA in Economics. He has more than 12 years of experience with extensive knowledge in Monitoring and Evaluation (formative, summative, and developmental evaluation methods), Resource Development, Grants Management, and Project Management. He has ample experience working with major donors (e.g., USAID, ECHO, EU, GAC, and Australian DFAT), Ethiopian government offices/ministries (e.g., EDRMC, RRS, and Ministry of Finance), and multilateral organizations (UN agencies, IGAD, and African Union). Before joining Headlight, Esrael was a Grants Manager at Lutheran World Federation, and he served in different capacities at Australian DFAT, World Vision, and Compassion International. Esrael designed, implemented, supervised, and evaluated several projects in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Djibouti, and Central African Republic. Esrael is a skilled facilitator to support ideation and action on recommendations. Recently, he supported USAID/Ethiopia implementing partners, including Save the Children International and Global Communities, facilitating adaptation workshops and providing ongoing technical support. Since joining Headlight, Esrael has contributed to several studies and blogs, and he authored a facilitator’s guide on Adaptive Action Planning Workshops.
Yohannes Mebrate
Developmental Evaluation Lead
Yohannes Mebrate is a qualitative research analyst with 6+ years of experience managing and executing research and knowledge management activities in various capacities in the context of National, International NGOs and Higher Academic Institutes settings. Yohannes has led, coordinated, and managed a wide array of national research undertakings involving both qualitative and quantitative for notable INGOs such as USAID, World Bank, SNV, and KOIKA in his capacity as a Researcher, Project Manager, and Qualitative Team Lead in various research organizations.
To highlight a few of the study topics which Yohannes has either directly executed or coordinated, here are few themes: Policy Research and Analysis, Conflict and Post-conflict Analysis, Gender, Resilience and Food Security, Livelihood and Resilience, Mobile Population, Child/Maternal Nutrition, Quality of Education, Elderly individuals, Female Genital Mutilation/HTPs, Refugees, and Migration. Yohannes’s experience is grounded with both a Master’s (LLM) and Bachelor’s degree (LLB) in Legal Studies around International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws, Conflict Analysis and Dispute Resolution Mechanisms from Jimma and Debre Berhan/Addis Ababa University.
Tseday Tilahun Degafa
Developmental Evaluation (DE) Team Member
Tseday Tilahun Degafa has more than 15 years of experience in the international development sector and in academia. Her background includes ensuring quality development program implementation, working on research projects with Ethiopian public higher institutions focusing on natural resource-based conflicts in Ethiopia, partnership initiation, and stakeholder management. Prior to joining Headlight, Mrs. Degefa worked with various multinational organizations in the area of monitoring, evaluation, and learning; program facilitation and coordination of livelihood diversification; climate change resilience projects; and, developing policy briefs concentrating on natural resources and conflicts with international-based think tanks. Since joining Headlight, she has contributed to extensive qualitative analysis and developing an evidence catalog on disaster risk management for USAID. She is a core team member conducting a Developmental Evaluation on the USAID Mission’s work to strengthen disaster risk management systems and institutions. Mrs. Degafa has also published a book on “Extension Education & Communication” in Germany, she holds Bachelor’s of Science in Natural Resource Economics & Management from Mekelle University in Ethiopia and a Master’s in Development Studies, specializing in rural livelihoods, from Ambo University in Ethiopia. She speaks English, Afan Oromo, Amharic, and intermediate French.
Endashaw Asfaw Beshir
Developmental Evaluation (DE) Team Member
Endashaw Asfaw Beshir is a monitoring, evaluation, and learning specialist with 8 years of experience. His expertise is in context and stakeholder analysis, monitoring and evaluation, livelihoods and food security, environmental protection, early warning and disaster mitigation, and community mobilization. He is also well experienced in project design, proposal and concept paper development, operational planning and reporting, gathering learnings, facilitating adaptation, organizing multi-stakeholder platforms, and developing tool and data collection methods for qualitative evaluations. His career started by working in private companies on quality control. Before joining Headlight Consulting Services, LLP, he worked at World Vision Ethiopia in different positions as an international humanitarian practitioner, in particular on the USAID-funded consortium activity, SPIR-DFSA II, as a MEAL Officer. Now at Headlight, he is a core team member conducting a Developmental Evaluation on the USAID Mission’s work to strengthen disaster risk management systems and institutions. Mr. Beshir is currently engaged in Learning Review development through organizing an evidence catalog and qualitative analysis to support data-driven decision-making for clients. He has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Protection from Hohenheim University in Germany, and he speaks fluent Amharic and English.
Alemitu Golda
Developmental Evaluation Lead, Policy LINK Ethiopia
Ms. Alemitu Golda’s expertise is in program design, implementation, and leading monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) strategies and activities. She has designed and coordinated a performance measurement system for a portfolio of country programs at an international NGO, conducted evaluations and country program reviews, and led Institutional Analysis, Gender Audit, and community-level Climate Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis (CVCA). Ms. Alemitu’s experience with international and national consulting firms includes work such as MEL advisory assignment for the World Bank Climate Smart Initiative (CSI II), Agricultural TVET College’s organizational Gender Audit assignment for Nuffic, Nl, and socioeconomic studies and evaluations for DFID, AUSAID, EU, and Irish Aid funded programs in Ethiopia. Ms. Alemitu is currently serving as the Developmental Evaluator Lead on Policy LINK’s Ethiopia activity, a Resilience and Food Security program that strengthens the leadership capacity of public, private, and civil society actors and fosters collective action among them to transform policy systems.
Ms. Alemitu has 16 years of experience in development and humanitarian programs in agrarian, pastoralist and urban settings across Ethiopia. She specialized in MEL and impact measurement for nine years at CARE and two years at Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation in Ethiopia. Ms. Alemitu has worked on programs that focus on Food, Nutrition and Income security, climate resilience and Climate Smart Agriculture, Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH), Sexual Reproductive, Maternal and Child Health (SRMCH), social transformation, women’s empowerment, youths’ skills development and employment, and local governance and peace.
Ms. Alemitu has worked on programs funded by a range of international Agencies, including USAID, UN Agencies, EU, DFID, GAC, Irish Aid, DF, ADA, SDC, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CN. Hilton Foundation, H&M foundation, and others. She has a Master’s in Business Administration from Jimma University, Master’s in Management of Development, specialization in Rural Development and Gender from the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Science in the Netherlands, and a Bachelor of the Arts in Business Management from Jima University, Ethiopia. Ms. Golda is an energetic and skilled facilitator, and an excellent communicator fluent in English, Amharic, and Wolaita languages.
