Dr Ferew is a Public Health Physician with a PhD in Public Health Nutrition from London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr Ferew has worked in various capacities in higher education teaching/learning, health service delivery and management, as well as research. He has served as a Deputy Head of Regional Health Bureau, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Planning and Programme Officer at Jimma University, as well as a Senior Research Fellow at London South Bank University.
Since 2010, Dr Ferew has been serving as a Senior Nutrition Advisor to the Minister, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia. Between 2014 and 2018 he also served as an Advisor to the First Lady of Ethiopia.
In addition, Dr Ferew has held the following responsibilities:
- Focal person for Ethiopia for the UN Scaling Up Nutrition Movement.
- Co-chair (2014-2016) and member (2014- now) of the Global Nutrition Report Executive Committee and Steering Group.
- 2016 – present: member of the Council for Research and Technical Advice on Acute Malnutrition (CORTASAM).
Dr Ferew has published articles in various journals on topics such as nutrition, health service delivery, health professionals’ capacity building, finance tracking for nutrition (expenditure and budget), programme/project monitoring and evaluation, as well as mental health.