Fassil Gebeyehu
Fassil is a married person with 2 daughters and 1 boy. He has exceptional interpersonal skills with an aptitude for building rapport with a diverse range of people, able to multitask while remaining professional and courteous in fast-paced dynamic environments. Fassil is currently the General Coordinator of African Biodiversity Network (ABN). ABN was initiated in 1996 by a loose grouping of individuals concerned with promoting and protecting
African bio and cultural diversity. It is now a network with more than 25 partners ranging from small community-based organisations (CBOs) to non-government organisations (NGOs) and working with strategic partners and alliances from 25 African countries, Spain, UK, Colombia, India, Brazil and Europe. ABN enables Africans to voice their views on issues such as Genetic Engineering/GMO, Agro Ecology/biodiversity, Biodiversity protection, Mining and the rights of small farmers. It does this by providing network partners with technical and strategic support.
By profession, Fassil is conservationist and social anthropologist completed his PhD in Anthropology development from Durham University in the United Kingdom which is the renowned world class University. Before that, Fassil graduated in conservation and tourism, with a Masters degree from University of Kent in the United Kingdom which is also a reputable University. As a social science researcher, he developed a very strong skill on exploring complex data with a number of qualitative methodologies and ethnographic approach.
Fassil’s research is entitled as “The social life of seeds”. The study find out limitations of food and agriculture policies in Africa which focuses on economic productivity and correspondingly marginalizes and degrades a range of existing local practices relating to the cultivation and use of local farmers seeds. I argue that perception towards seeds and productivity is not limited to narrowly economic evaluations; rather, it is intimately intertwined within a range of socio-cultural activities and farming practices and is consequently valued in a range of different ways.
Farming knowledge is situated in people’s day-to-day interaction with one another and with the physical environments in which they work. Though documentation is good when it comes to attaining information and gathering of data, Farming knowledge and associated cultural practices cannot be reducible to a system in the form of books or other forms of documents
Throughout his educational and experiential carrier, Fassil is trained as a trainer of community mobilizer through various techniques including Participatory Rural appraisal (PRA), community dialogue, community ecological map, inter-generational learning among others. Fassil also possess advanced administrative and leadership skills, planning, organizing and scheduling local and international events. This provided his exceptional skill in personal relationship, communication, decision making ability with innovative and problem-solving capacity.