Biography

Dr Mehari Taddele Maru is currently Part-time Professor Migration Policy Centre and Academic Coordinator of the Young African Leaders Programme at the School of Transnational Governance and at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.

Dr Mehari is also a Fellow at the United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), Bruges, Belgium.

A graduate of Harvard and Oxford universities, he holds a PhD in Legal Sciences from JL Giessen University, Germany, an MPA from Harvard, an MSc from the University of Oxford and an LLB from Addis Ababa University.

With more than 20 years of management and professional working experience in multilateral bodies, he combines research excellence with a deep knowledge of multilateral systems. Dr Mehari is a member of the Technical Committee of the Tana High-Level Security Forum (modelled on, and uniquely related to the Munich Security Forum for Africa), and he worked as Programme Coordinator for the AU Migration Programme and Legal Expert at the African Union Commission (AUC). He served as Programme Head for Conflict Prevention and Risk Analysis at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and as Director for University Reform at Addis Ababa University, in addition to serving as a member of the university’s Senate and Policy Committee.

He also served as a resource person to the UN Economic Commission for Africa on Transboundary Resources; the IGAD-UN High Level Dialogue; the Tana Security Forum; GIZ; the African Peace Support Trainers Association (APSTA); the West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP); the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC; the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); the Life and Peace Institute (L&PI: Uppsala); the Enough Project (Washington); and the Los Angeles-based relief organisation Not on Our Watch. He was also the Africa expert member for the review of the Africa-EU partnership on Migration, Mobility and Employment as well as Higher Education.

At the AU, Dr Mehari has drafted various policy blueprints on migration, peace and security, governance, and humanitarian effectiveness. These include the AU Border Governance Strategy; the Common African Position on Humanitarian Effectiveness; the Common African Position on Migration and Development; AU.COMMIT; and the AU Migration Action Plan (2008-2012). He has also been involved in reviewing the AU-EU partnership. He developed the Framework for AU Cooperation with Regional Economic Communities (AU-RECs) within the African Governance Architecture (AGA) and served as a resource person for the Pan African Migration Forum.

Similarly, he drafted the IGAD State of the Region Report, the IGAD Peace and Security Strategy 2020, and the State of Peace and Security of IGAD Region. He also prepared the Strategy for South Sudan Mediation and the Report of the IGAD Monitoring and Verification Mechanism of South Sudan, and facilitated various South Sudan peace negotiations. As migration consultant to IGAD, he designed the IGAD Migration Action Plan (IMAP) and the Migration Priorities programme for East and Southern Africa; and I developed the Action Plan and drafted the IGAD Protocol for Free Movement of Persons while facilitating all negotiations and national consultative meetings on that Protocol.

In recognition of his expertise, he has been invited to make presentations to decision-making and policy organs of the UN, the AU and RECs: specifically, to the Peace and Security Council; the Permanent Representatives’ Committee; AU and IGAD ministerial councils and RECs; and the UN Human Rights Council’s Intergovernmental Working Groups. His work has been cited in various decisions of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, and at Council of Ministers and ministerial conferences.

An author, Dr Mehari is a critic and commentator on various regional and international issues. My articles and interviews have appeared in both Ethiopian and international media outlets including ABC, AFP, Al-Jazeera Net, Al-Jazeera Studies Centre, BBC, Bloomberg TV, CCTV, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, ABC News Radio, Xinhua, Financial Times, Reuters, Open Democracy, Pambazuka, the South African Reporter, Radio France International, South Sudan Tribune, SABC, The Daily Mavericks, Ethiopian Television, The Reporter, TRT Turkey, TVC, Fortune, Capital, Oman Observer, Walta Information Centre etc.

His book The Kampala Convention and Its Contributions to International Law (Eleven International Publishing: The Hague, 2014) examines the 2012 AU Convention on the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons (the ‘Kampala Convention’). He has also published many articles in international and African journals.