Assefa Bequele, PhD is the Founder and former Executive Director of African Child Policy Forum (ACPF). He has long years of service in the United Nations system (ILO, Geneva, Asia and Africa), and university teaching in Ethiopia and the United States.

He has devoted most of his professional life to the promotion of the rights and welfare of children, especially the progressive elimination of child labour. He was responsible for many years for the design, development and management of the ILO’s International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) – the world’s premier technical programme on child labour – and the development of the ILO’s Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour (Convention No. 182).  Assefa is the author of many publications and articles on child rights and economic development. He holds a PhD in Economics.