Dr. Yonas holds a Doctorate degree in Medicine. He has over 35 years of experience in clinical medicine, disaster management, project development and partnership development at different senior technical and managerial levels internationally.

His experience includes working in rural and referral hospitals in Ethiopia, in an international Humanitarian NGO in Rwanda, at WHO Pan African Emergency Training Centre, at WHO Emergency Programme and Country Support programs in Geneva, at WHO South-East Asia Regional Office as partnership lead, as Deputy WHO Representative for India, as WHO Representative to D.P.R Korea, and WHO Representative to Thailand.

He also served as Regional Planning head at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, based in New Delhi, India, before taking his current position as WHO Representative to Uganda in January 2018.