Spotlight: Dr. Negussie Teffera

Recognizing his tremendous service to Population Media Center, the Board of Directors recently recognized Dr. Negussie Teffera for his exemplary and dedicated work as Resident Representative of PMC-Ethiopia from 2000 to 2019. In a resolution on April 16th, the board honored his two decades of leadership, which recently ended with Dr. Negussie’s retirement. During his tenure, Dr. Negussie:

• Acted as the spokesperson and guiding force for PMC-Ethiopia, generating hundreds of newspaper and broadcast news stories, both in the country and internationally.
• Raised support and built partnerships with the Ethiopian government, NGOs, UN agencies, and foreign embassies. These included the Packard Foundation, USAID, UNICEF, Save the Children Norway, Save the Children USA, and the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Office of the Government of Ethiopia.
• Oversaw the production and broadcast of nine long-running social content radio shows for the public, along with workshops for journalists, community leaders, youth leaders, and religious leaders. Evaluation of these programs has revealed a positive effect on attitudes and behaviors regarding Ethiopian women and children.
• Collaborated with World Vision Ethiopia to reduce the number of children engaging in the worst forms of child labor within seven woredas and two city jurisdictions.
• Produced a special drama with support from UNICEF for 30,000 Ethiopian rural health extension workers, which increased their capacity to serve the public and to encourage the public to accept their work.
• Conducted a program with support from UN Women to address violence against women in Ethiopia.
• Reduced dramatically the acceptance and practice of female genital mutilation with programs in several languages and reaching numerous segments of society.
• Helped to motivate a tripling of contraceptive use among the married women who listened to PMC-Ethiopia programs Yeken Kignit and Dhimbibba. Listeners comprised half of the married women in Ethiopia.
• Reduced high-risk sexual behaviors among youth dramatically with a program called Menta Menged.
• Authored the books Communication for Social Development: An Overview and the Ethiopian Experience and The Ethiopian Media Profile. He also published numerous books of real-life stories that related to reproductive health and gender issues, which were distributed across the country.

Dr. Negussie’s accomplishments come from his extraordinary commitment to the rights of women and girls, reproductive health, and the improvement of life for the people of Ethiopia. He has given the country—and the world—much to thank him for. The Board of Directors considers him a permanent part of the PMC family.