Tewodros Melesse was appointed Director-General of the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) in September 2011. Mr Melesse has more than 30 years of experience with organizations committed to sexual and reproductive health and rights for all, including his time as IPPF Africa Regional Director in Nairobi/ Kenya, where he worked between 2002 and 2011.

IPPF is the world’s largest non-governmental organization working in this field. Under Mr Melesse’s leadership, IPPF has created a new Strategic Framework which was adopted by over 150 Member Associations. Over the next seven years IPPF plans to get 100 governments to respect, protect and fulfil sexual and reproductive rights and gender equality.

We also aim to get one billion people to act freely on their sexual and reproductive health and rights by 2022. We will enable young people to access comprehensive sexuality education and realise their sexual rights. We will also engage champions, opinion formers and the media to promote health, choice and rights.

Under our new framework we plan to deliver two billion quality integrated sexual and reproductive health services. We will deliver rights-based services including safe abortion and HIV and enable services through public and private health providers.

Mr Melesse is a passionate advocate and is committed to working in strong partnership to achieve change with governments, donors and not-for-profit organizations. His leadership assisted with the development and adoption of the Africa Union Maputo Plan of Action, which he believes will save the lives of future women and girls and provides the necessary policy framework to cost universal access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health in Africa.

Prior to working with IPPF, Mr Melesse held the position of Country Representative (Ethiopia) for Pathfinder International.

He has a degree in Economics (Catholic University, Louvain/ Belgium).  A citizen of Ethiopia and a permanent resident of Australia, he is based in the United Kingdom.

He is fluent in English and French.

Mr Melesse is married with two adult daughters.