Fitsum has 10+ years of experience working in development across the private sector, academia, policy think-tanks, non-profits and multilateral organizations. Prior to his current position of Africa Early Years Fellow at the World Bank, he has fulfilled various roles including research, training, consulting and teaching at the university level. At the Ethiopian Economics Association – Ethiopian Economic Policy Research Institute he held a junior research fellow position. There he conducted research on education, health, poverty, migration, social protection and gender, addressing topics such as child mortality, fertility, women self-help groups, and education sector reviews. Fitsum has also worked with the World Bank on different consulting assignments. He has a particular interest in ECCE and early learning assessment. He completed the train the trainer program for the Measuring Early Learning and Quality Outcomes (MELQO) tool in 2018.