Mebratu Kelecha is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa (FLIA). He holds a Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Westminster and an MSc in Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding from Durham University. He also earned a BA in Public Administration and Development Management and an MA in Public Management and Policy (specialized in public policy) from Addis Ababa University. Before coming to the UK, Mebratu taught undergraduate courses at Dilla and Ambo Universities in Ethiopia.   

His research interests include conflict and peace studies, public sector reform in post-conflict societies, development politics, transition politics in divided societies, social movement, democracy, and democratic innovation. Mebratu’s Ph.D. thesis focuses on the links between protest movements, development and democratisation in Africa, with an emphasis on Ethiopia, which is interdisciplinary and consists of multiple research lines aimed at addressing the most complex and vital questions of the continent: what the determinants of democratisation are, how and when social movement leads to transformative politics, under what conditions does development take on democratic or authoritarian forms.    

Outside academia, Mebratu has a background in youth activism for positive social change on the African continent and publishes widely political commentary on Ethiopia's democratisation, protest movements and peacebuilding with the hope to help shape public opinion.