Dalaya Esayiyas is a Director of Business for Peace for Initiative Africa. Prior to that, she worked with the Ethiopian government on job creation and coordinated regional diagnostic studies on unemployment.

Dalaya holds over 10 years of experience in the academic, research and policy sector. She has held positions in a diverse range of managerial and policy making spaces in various organizations. Most of her work is focused on conflict analysis, political economy and governance. She wants to go into political leadership in Ethiopia and to take up a leading role in public policy making, with an emphasis on economic transformation.

Dalaya holds a degree in political science and international relations and a master’s degree in peace and security studies. In September 2012, she was awarded the African Leadership Center Fellowship for African Scholars to continue her studies in King’s College, London, specializing in conflict and development. She was also a research fellow of the department of African foreign policy and diplomacy at the University of Johannesburg.

Dalaya’s research as an AsiaGlobal Fellow focused on leadership and state owned enterprises. She would like to thoroughly investigate the role of the state and public institutions in development and structural transformation. Using a comparative analysis approach grounded in historical review, she wants to build a case for a more active role for the state in economic transformation.