Marko Lesukat

Marko Lesukat is a globally renowned disaster risk management (DRM) expert with over 23 years’ experience implementing and managing humanitarian and development interventions in complex, sensitive, and fragile environments throughout Africa. In Eastern and Southern Africa, he has managed programs that specialize in DRM policy reform, risk reduction, early warning systems (EWSs), strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization. 

Mr. Lesukat currently serves as the Chief of Party of the USAID-funded Disaster Risk Management Activity in Ethiopia and is responsible for overall leadership and establishes the technical, financial, and administrative direction of the Activity. He has a decade of relevant professional work experience in Ethiopia, including leading the European Union-funded decentralization of disaster risk management across all levels of government, woreda annual DRM planning, and the development and adoption of Ethiopia’s regional contingency funds response legal frameworks for early emergency responses in Amhara, Oromia, Somali, Sidama, and the former Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples’ Regions (SNNPR). 

Mr. Lesukat also has complementary expertise in the cross-cutting fields of gender inclusion, climate change adaptation, integrated rural development, community resilience, and local economic development, most predominantly across Eastern and Southern Africa. He has decades of managerial experience with teams at both the local and regional levels, where he specialized in humanitarian preparedness and response, building capacity in resilience, climate change adaptation, and DRM knowledge management in the Greater Horn of Africa.

He is fluent in English, Kiswahili, and Maasai/Samburu, and basic Arabic.