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Vol 2, No 2 (2010) - Education Issue: pp (160-163)

From ShuroMeda to Deputy Director-General of UNESCO

in Paris'- The journey of a humble lad from Ethiopia

A Daughter’s Account My father, Getachew Engida, was born and raised in a small impoverished area in the

north of Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, called Shuromeda. Shuromeda is shanty but pleasant

village of multi-ethinic Ethiopians from all over the country, who settled there to service

the landed-gentry of Emperors Menilik and Haile Selassie I. The home my grandmother

hand built housed his parents and his three younger siblings. Although his father was a

decorated soldier for the Imperial Body Guard of Emperor Haile Selelassie, they lived off

limited resources. Experiencing poverty first hand from his childhood gave him an

intimate understanding of the difficulties faced by millions of Ethiopians. The

determination to educate himself and to dedicate his career to poverty alleviation directly

stemmed from this experience. Life was busy for my father growing up, he worked his

way through high school to supplement his parent’s income, he burnt the midnight oil

studying night after night (sometimes at a foot of lamp posts as electricity was scarce at

home), played football with the same friends he still has today, and he did all this

barefoot, until at least high school. But he loves the years he spent in Shuromeda eating

my grandmother Emaye’s delicious shuro wot, and remember them with nostalgia.

Whenever he lands in Addis, the first call is Shuromeda. Over a delicious traditional

meal, my father will ask by name for the well being all the people he knew growing up.

While most high school students today content themselves with the usual mischief after

school, my father was a hard core democrat, determined to change the Imperial regime to

make way for a new democratic social order. His leadership and participation in the

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student movement of the time has got him in to trouble with the authorities and his own

father (loyal soldier of the Emperor). His activism would have landed him into a lot of

trouble if it weren’t for his outstanding academic record. After high school, he left

Ethiopia to pursue his education in Europe. True to his working class nature, he declined

to go to Oxbridge colleges to avoid ‘the rich kids’ and began his BA in Manchester. He

now knows how naïve his views were about Oxbridge but without regrets. He was on a

full scholarship from the World University Service of the UK.

Once he had the opportunity to specialize in Manchester, he chose to study Agricultural

Economics and Finance. Ethiopia’s economy is largely based on agriculture, therefore, he

wanted to learn about the agricultural sector and work towards poverty alleviation. He

missed his beloved Shuromeda terribly and wanted to return after graduation, but

couldn’t as Derg (Mengistu’s Military Regime) was still in power and my father was

active campaigner against it. Due to a lack of demand for jobs in agricultural economics

in the UK, it took a backseat and he focused on finance.

After a few years in the private sector, working for Ernst & Young (then Arthur Young)

and Thompson-Reuters, my father became unsatisfied with his work and decided to shift

from profit making enterprises to the not-for-profit public sectors. By this point he was a

Chartered Accountant, held an MBA in International Business & Finance from the City

University Business School, but best of all: he married my mother and they had three

children.

My parents new jobs landed us in Rome, Italy where for the first time, they began

working for the United Nations. Within a few months we, the children, could speak

Italian, the most beautiful language, with relative ease. From parties that were thrown at

our house, and the ones that my brothers and I were dragged along to, my parents seemed

to be having as much fun as we were. Four years into Rome, my father felt that his work

is slow, not making as much difference as he would have liked and the sense of urgency

he wished to see in tackling rural poverty was not fully there. In spite of being well liked

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by his UN colleagues and at a reasonably comfortable hierarchy in the UN pecking order,

my father started to look for a different challenge close to home.

A few years later we were back in Nairobi, where my father obtained a position at the

World Bank supported International Livestock Research Institute as its Chief Financial

Officer. The position came with accommodation – we moved into one of the houses

located on the compound. For my brothers and I, it was a dream come true. The

compound had a swimming pool, tennis court, football pitch and even a farm with plenty

of cows, goats and sheep. My father enjoyed the facilities too; we would often find him

swinging his racket on the tennis court. He quickly became very close to the scientists he

was working with. He read voraciously on animal diseases, crop-livestock systems, rural

development and the major problems that are bedevilling the poorest of the poor in rural

areas. He would commute to Addis Ababa (ILRI has a big research campus there)

regularly for the first time since he left home in 1975. All the family found my father at

his happiest at ILRI. He would work 24/7 but no complaints. He has reshaped ILRI in

many ways and quickly added to his portfolio the responsibility for administration and

human resources. He was known as tough but fair minded leader.

Four years into his job, I became a teenager and my departure to a university was on the

horizon. Children’s education was top priority to my parents. Some rule in the UK

required that I needed to complete high school in Europe to qualify as a home student

even though I am a citizen. My father turned his attention to finding a job in Europe that

would help my university education and keep my parents engaged in the business of

development.

Tenacious as he is, he quickly landed a job with UNESCO as a Deputy Assistant Director

General for Administration & Comptroller. Many believe, with some evidence, that you

don’t get a job at such a senior level even with good competencies without support from

the powers that be. My father had none of this except his credentials. My father’s first

year at UNESCO was an important one for the both of us. As a father, his number one

priority is his children’s education. He never compromised our studies, or let anything

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interfere with our schooling. Therefore, when I was about to begin the two year IB

diploma in Paris, he insisted that I should complete it at the same school. In order to

avoid any disruption, I moved to Paris with him while my mother and brothers were in

Nairobi for another year. The time my father and I spent in that cosy Parisian apartment

taught us a lot about each other. I’ve always known my father to be the most focused

individual there ever was. Once he sets his sight on something, he won’t quit until he has

reached his goal. We would open our books at night, and while I battled with Biology he

tackled one of his many French grammar books. On the nights he didn’t study French, he

would crack open a book on politics, philosophy, development, behavioural sciences,

history or economics. Within a few weeks we needed yet another bookshelf! But this is

my father, always learning, always reading, and always working to improve the world.

With all this, my father, at least according to the many close friends from Shuromeda,

remains the same humble, modest, friendly and courteous person. His sense of humour

and jokes perhaps are funnier told in Amharic than in his ‘funny’ English accent. His

French is yet to get to that level.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know much about my father’s job description. But I

do know about UNESCO. And as an organization dedicated to sustainable development,

peace, poverty alleviation and education I know that it shares the same dreams as my

father. His story is a humble one that began in the streets of Shuromeda. His focus,

determination, willingness to continuously learn and contribute the betterment of

humankind led him to be appointed as the new Deputy Director General of UNESCO this

April 2010. His accomplishment has made Ethiopians and Africans proud, but as his

daughter I speak for our entire family when I say that nobody could be more proud than

us.

Hannah Getachew (age 22) McGill University Montreal, Canada August 2, 2010