Gennet Zewide Birru (PhD) is a pioneering Ethiopian academic, statesman, and diplomat who has dedicated her career to the transformation of Ethiopia’s educational landscape and the advancement of women’s rights. As the first woman to hold a cabinet-level education ministerial position in Ethiopia, her legacy is defined by a commitment to equity, access, and institutional reform.

Academic Foundations

Dr. Gennet’s professional journey began in academia. After earning her B.Sc. in Business Education from Plymouth State College in 1973 and an M.Sc. from Suffolk University in 1984, she spent nearly two decades at Addis Ababa University. Between 1973 and 1991, she rose from lecturer to assistant professor and served as the department head of business education. Her academic influence extended regionally, serving as an external examiner for Kenyatta University in Kenya during the early 1990s. She later solidified her scholarly expertise by earning a Ph.D. in political thoughts and comparative politics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 2010.

Ministerial Leadership and Educational Reform

In October 1991, Dr. Gennet transitioned into public service as the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Higher Education. By August 1992, she was promoted to Minister of Education, a position she held until 2005. During her thirteen-year tenure, she was the primary architect of a new national education policy designed to decentralize the system and bridge the gap between rural and urban schooling.

Her administration was characterized by:

Equity and Access: Promoting affirmative action for women and disadvantaged groups.

Global Collaboration: Managing large-scale educational projects funded by international bodies such as the World Bank, UNESCO, and USAID.

Institutional Building: On the international stage, she served twice on the UNESCO Executive Board. She was a key advocate for establishing the UNESCO International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa (IICBA), which remains headquartered in Addis Ababa.

Diplomacy and Women's Advocacy

Following her ministerial service, Dr. Gennet was appointed Ethiopia’s Ambassador to India, serving from 2006 to 2016. Her decade-long tenure saw a significant strengthening of Indo-Ethiopian relations, particularly in trade, investment, and financial cooperation.

Dr. Gennet has remained a fierce advocate for gender parity. She served as the chairperson of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and founded its Ethiopian chapter. In 2016, she co-founded the Women's Strategic Development Centre (WSDC) to foster the economic and political empowerment of Ethiopian women.

Literary Contributions and Publications

A prolific author, Dr. Gennet has documented the intersection of education and politics in her books, Resistance, Freedom, and Empowerment: The Ethiopian Women’s Struggle (2014) and No One Left Behind: Redesigning the Ethiopian Education Policy (2018).

In 2025, she contributed significant new scholarship to the field of Ethiopian gender studies, including:

History of Women in Ethiopia (2025): Chapters detailing women's political participation from 1974 to 2018, published by the Centre français des études éthiopiennes.

Re-imaging Women Leadership (2025): A case study on breaking barriers for women in academic leadership, published by Peter LangG