Dr Menghestab Haile is WFP's Regional Director for Southern Africa. Before moving to South Africa, he served as the WFP Country Director and Representative in Egypt. Dr Haile has occupied diverse professional posts ranging from a university lecturer in Ethiopia, Research Scientist in the UK, government civil servant in Ethiopia, international private sector consultant in IGAD and most recently the UN WFP. Since joining WFP, he has worked in the Sudan leading a food security and early warning system development, then moved to the Head Quarters of the organization in Rome, Italy to lead the GIS and remote sensing section of WFP with a global responsibility. He was then appointed as Senior Policy Advisor of the Deputy Executive Director of Hunger Solutions and then appointed Deputy Director of the WFP Africa office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with main responsibility liaising with the African Union, NEPAD and ECA. He served as WFP Country Director and Representative here in Egypt.

Dr Haile received his PhD in Meteorology from the University of Reading, UK and has published several papers. His professional interest revolves around capacity building of national governments and developing strategic partnerships with the AUC, NEPAD and Regional Economic, Communities (RECs) in the areas of early warning and Vulnerability Assessment and Mapping (VAM), Disaster reduction and Risk Management including (such as the innovative Africa Risk Capacity - ARC), emergency response, and applications of GIS and remote sensing.