Yetnebersh Molla

Programme Specialist, Children with Disabilities // UNICEF ESAR

Since May 2021, Yetneberesh Nigussie Molla has held the position of Programme Specialist (Children with Disabilities) in UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa. Her role is to provide strategic leadership for disability inclusive programming and operations in the region, technical assistance, and capacity building in the Regional Office and the 21 Country Offices.

Yetneberesh Nigussie Molla is an Ethiopian lawyer with a disability having made tremendous achievements in changing the mindset of people towards persons with disabilities. Having studied law and social work in Addis Ababa University.

In her early days of activism, Ms. Yetneberesh co-founded the Ethiopian center for Disability and Development (ECDD) a prominent local organization advocating for disability inclusion in development in 2005 and served as the executive director till 2015. With a view to broaden her influence beyond her home country, Ethiopia, Ms. Yetneberesh joined Light for the World, an international NGO based in Austria, Vienna (2016-2019) and provided professional and technical support on the human rights of persons with disabilities.

In 2019, she co-founded the Ethiopian Lawyers with Disabilities Association (ELDA) the first professional association of persons with disabilities in the country and served as the first president of the association until March 2023.

Before joining UNICEF ESARO in May 2021, Yetneberesh was serving as the senior manager of the Global Action on Disability (GLAD) network, a unique platform bringing bilateral/multilateral donors and agencies, foundations and key global coalitions of the disability movement together.

Mrs. Yetneberesh has also received several outstanding awards nationally, regionally and globally in recognition of her magnificent work in the area of disability inclusion. To mention some, Yetneberesh is a joint winner of the Rights Livelihood Award 2017 (interchangeably known as: “alternative Nobel Prize” and the Spirit of Hellen Keller award 2018. The World Economic Forum recognized Ms. Yetneberesh Nigussie as one of the most influential young Global Leaders in 2020 along with other global figures.

In her family life, Yetneberesh is married and is a proud mother of three beautiful girls (Ahati, Zema and Sanita).

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