Tedros Adhanom

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ge'ez: ቴዎድሮስ አድሓኖም ገብረኢየሱስ) (born 1965) is an Ethiopian academic, public health authority and politician who has served in the government of Ethiopia as Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2012. Previously he was Minister of Health from 2005 to 2012.

Tedros joined the Ministry of Health in 1986, after graduating from the University of Asmara. An internationally recognized malaria researcher, as Minister of Health, Tedros received praise for a number of innovative and system-wide health reforms that substantially improved access to health services and key outcomes. Amongst them were hiring and training roughly 40,000 female health extension workers, cutting infant mortality from 123 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2006 to 88 in 2011, and increasing the hiring of health cadres including medical doctors and midwives. In July 2009, he was elected Board Chair of The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for a 2-year term.

In November 2012, Tedros was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs by Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn. In January 2016 the twenty Sixth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union has endorsed his candidature for the next election of the Director General of the World Health Organisation.

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa (Amharic: አዲስ አበባ^?Addis Abäba, IPA: [adˈdis ˈabəba], “new flower”; Oromo: Finfinne,[fɪnˈfɪ́n.nɛ́] "Natural Spring(s)"), sometimes spelled Addis Abeba (the spelling used by the official Ethiopian Mapping Authority), is the capital city of Ethiopia. Founded in 1886, it is the largest city in Ethiopia, with a population of 3,384,569 according to the 2007 population census with annual growth rate of 3.8%. This number has been increased from the originally published 2,738,248 figure and appears to be still largely underestimated.

As a chartered city (ras gez astedader), Addis Ababa has the status of both a city and a state. It is where the African Union is and its predecessor the OAU was based. It also hosts the headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and numerous other continental and international organizations. Addis Ababa is therefore often referred to as "the political capital of Africa" due to its historical, diplomatic and political significance for the continent.