Mahlet Teshome Kebede

I do strategy, guideline and policy development in the fields of science, technology, innovation, conservation of biodiversity and environment, social and governance. I have over 17+ years of experience covering the African continent in these areas. I also have the skills to support negotiation of partnerships bi-laterally or multilaterally from international treaty development to technology transfer agreements and access and benefit sharing agreements.

• International Liability Regime for Biodiversity Damage: The Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Supplementary Protocol, One Legally-Binding Provision On Civil Liability: Why Was It So Important? A Negotiator’s Perspective, Mahlet Teshome and Elmo Thomas, Routledge, 2014, https://lawcat.berkeley.edu/record/176508
• Biosafety Policy of the African Union: Background, Instruments and Activities, AUC and GIZ, 2011
• AU Guidelines for the Cooridnated Implementation of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources, AUC, 2015
• Editor for various Biosafety Publications of the African Union Commission, Documents maybe submitted upon request
• Biosafety Laws, Provided legal inputs on the Draft national biosafety laws of the following countries: Ethiopia-National Biosafety Proclamation of 2009 (Provided the Draft Law), Nigeria-Biosafety Bill of 2007, Swaziland-Biosafety Bill of 2008 and Malawi-Revised Biosafety Act 2010
• Developed legal commentaries and briefing documents for the African Group of Negotiators on the negotiating items of the Conference of the Parties of the CBD and its Protocols; these technical papers were used to develop African common positions at each of the sessions.
• An Overview of the Status of Biosafety in Africa, Mahlet Teshome, A research paper prepared for the UNECA- SDD, October 2005 prepared for the UN Biotech Africa Program under the then UNSDD.
• The Biosafety Proclamation of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Mahlet Teshome and Tarik Kassa, May 2004-March 2005
• Comparative Analysis of Selected Biosafety Elements as provided under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, the African Model Law on Safety in Biotechnology and the European Directives, Mahlet Teshome and Tarik Kassa, February 2004
• Overview of the State of Environment and Genetic Engineering in Relation to the Legal Context of Biosafety in Ethiopia, Mahlet Teshome and Tarik Kassa, January 2004
• MA Thesis: Biotechnology towards Development; A Legal Perspective of Biosafety in Ethiopia, July 2006
• LLB Thesis: Electronic Commerce and its Legal Prerequisites in the Ethiopian Context, June 2002

• MELCA Ethiopia, founding member since January 2005 to date
• Rotarian of the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Central-Mella from February 2002 to 2012
• Member of the Advisory Committee of The Compact
• Core Team member of Destiny Ethiopia initiative

• Prof. Mohammed Belhocine, Commissioner for Education, Science Technology, and Innovation, African Union Commission, mohammedb@africa-union.org
• Mr. Worku Damena Yifru, Senior Legal Officer, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Worku.yifru@cbd.int
• Dr. Hartmut Meyer, Team leader: ABS Capacity Development Initiative, GloBe - Department Sector and Global Programmes GiZ, hartmut.meyer@giz.de

• Holistic Foundations for Assessment and Regulation of Genetic Engineering and Genetically Modified Organisms, Norwegian Institute of Gene Ecology (GenØk), 08/2006, https://genok.com/capacity-building/courses/
• Climate Change Diplomacy, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), 05/2011, https://www.unitar.org/
• Building Legal Frameworks to Implement the Nagoya Protocol, International Development Law Organization (IDLO), 08/2014, https://www.idlo.int/what-we-do/initiatives/capacity-building-programme-support-implementation-nagoya-protocol
• United Nations Regional Course in International Law, United Nations Codification Division, 02/2015, https://legal.un.org/poa/rcil/
• Intellectual Property in Practice: A Focus on Africa, PROLAW-African Union and Loyola University Chicago, 07/2015, https://www.luc.edu/
• Technology Transfer and Acquisition: How Africa can get a better Deal, PROLAW-African Union and Loyola University Chicago, 02/2016, https://www.luc.edu/
• Conflict Prevention and Peacemaking in Africa, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), 02/2018, https://www.unitar.org/
• Negotiations Skills and Techniques, United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), 09/2018, https://www.unitar.org/
• Strategic Planning: Strategic Planning Thinking Tools, Center for International Development and Training (CIDT), 03/2019, https://cidt.org.uk/home/
• Training in Legal Drafting and Legal writing, American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative, 08/2019, https://www.americanbar.org/advocacy/rule_of_law/
• International Law of Cyber Operations, Cyber Law International and University of Reading, 08/2021, https://www.cyberlawint.com/
• Multilateral Environmental Agreements, University of Finland, UNEP and Center for Climate Change Energy and Environmental Law, 09/2021, https://sites.uef.fi/cceel/
• Introduction to Business intelligence, Corporate Finance Institute, 08/22/2023
• Introduction to ESG and ESG Fundamentals, Corporate Finance Institute, 08/28/2023, 12/27/2023, https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/