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MEKONNEN
Girma Dessalegn MEKONNEN
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa
Information Management Officer, PCKMD- Knowledge Management Services Section
Mr. Girma Dessalegn Mekonnen is working as Programme/Information Management Officer at the Publications, Conferences and Knowledge Management Division of the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Mr. Mekonnen leads the Research Support Services Team that includes client facing activities such as acquisition, reference assistance, liaison librarians, literature review, citation mgt., plagiarism, bibliographies etc.; and those activities undertaken outside of the clients view, which include cataloguing & Indexing, digitization, Content development and maintenance, publishing support, and Knowledge sharing and facilitation. He also serves as the focal person for Programme management activities. Mr. Mekonnen holds a Masters of Science Degree in Information Science and a Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics, both from the Addis Ababa University. He is also a certified Prince 2 Practitioner in Programme/Project management. He has 30 years of experience in programme/project management, documentation/information management and IT/software development. Mr. Mekonnen acquired an extensive experience in managing donor funded projects through the years by managing worth more than a combined $3.5 million of XB resources. Activities include submitting of project proposals, budget revisions, allocation of resources for identified activities, preparation of progress and final reports, as well as following up on all projects activities. He also prepares and follows up (Annual Business Plans) and Proposed Programme Budgets (PPBs). Through his work at the International Live Stock Research Institute, he was tasked with the development of information services and resources relevant to the institute’s scientists. Coupled with his MSC degree in Information Science, which gave him a full understanding of the analysis, collection, classification, manipulation, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information and knowledge. The experience in such an institution has also helped him to do independent research on Information society issues with an African context. Mr. Mekonnen has also provided training for policymakers and other stakeholders and showcased ICT best practices. Given through both face-to-face and online formats the training included, Mr. Mekonnen designed and developed ITCA’s MOODLE based open source e-learning platform and the online courses of the Academy of ICT Essentials for Government Leaders course series. As part of a team I have participated in formulating a project specifically targeting African women where we got funded by InfoDev of the World Bank and Cisco Systems Inc. to train African women in Internetworking Technology. The training run for two rounds (6 months each) for participants coming from Anglophone and Francophone countries, respectively. We have also conducted training on web-based journalism targeting women media professionals. Mr. Mekonnen possesses a strong technical skill in developing online platforms. In addition to developing the online platforms to run on ECA servers, I have trained ICT experts and lecturers from Civil Service University of Oromia and the Ethiopian Management Institute in deploying an e-learning platform. The technical skills have started from the early days in my career where I worked as a software expert in the National Computer and Information Centre. Mr. Mekonnen have been involved in the capturing, managing, storing and delivering of Information and Knowledge to policymakers and other stakeholders, using discussion groups, multimedia (audio, video, graphics) tools, web technologies, outreach services through capacity building and exhibition of best practices. In the e-learning courses we intentionally design the courses to capture tacit knowledge from participants to enrich the course materials with on the ground and up to date information. He is associated with the Ethiopian IT Professionals Association (EITPA) and the Ethiopian Free and Open Source Software Network (EFOSSNET). Mr. Mekonnen holds a M.A. in information science from the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia. Mr. Mekonnen holds a M.A. in information science from the Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Areas of Expertise
Documentation, Library And Information Sciences And Reference Works, Information Management Systems And Technology, Project Management

Education:

Master's Degree
Science in Information Systems
Addis Ababa University
MS InformationScience
Bachelor's degree
Mathematics
Addis Ababa University
BS Mathematics

Language:

English

Publication:

Yes