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Senior Advisor for Sustainable Development and Fund Management | Board Vice Chair Bisrat Aklilu

Bisrat Aklilu is a senior advisor for sustainable development and fund management. He advises national governments and multilateral organizations, including serving on the Board of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (2013 – 2019), Center for International Forestry Research (2013 – 2019), Ethiopian Diaspora Trust Fund (2018 – present) and serving as advisor to the Syria Recovery Trust Fund (2013 – 2019). Bisrat also worked with the UN for over 25 years, including as the Deputy Executive Director and Director of Operations at the UN Office of Project Services, and later as the Executive Coordinator of the Multi-Partner Trust Fund (MPTF) Office located in the United Nations Development Programme. Bisrat established and managed the MPTF Office, which when he left the UN in 2013, had a portfolio of over 100 trust funds valued at over $6 billion and is the first UN Office to introduce full public transparency through real-time financial data and narrative reporting. Bisrat holds a Ph.D. Economics and M.A. in Economics from Boston University, where he was also an assistant professor, and a M.Sc. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Massachusetts.