If the history of Africa was written by Africans and by women, I think we would find many unsung heroes. - Sahle-Work Zewde

Let me assure you that I will do my best not only as an Ethiopian but as an African in my heart and soul; so that we can show the world that women can also deliver, maybe differently, but deliver.

In so many areas — agriculture, transport, energy, the water sector, multisector — the support we have been getting for years from the African Development Bank, up to more than one billion dollars, has been very vital for Ethiopia.

I grew up in a family of four girls. I'm the firstborn. But I had a very amazing family especially my father, who has always told us that there is nothing that a woman or a girl cannot do. So this has been my motto all my life and in whatever I did, by the way, I was the first woman to do this, the first woman to do that, so I was daring.