Dr. Ismail has a Ph.D. in economics and social science from the University of Osnabrück. Dr. Ismail was appointed as the special envoy of IGAD to South Sudan since 2018. He served as the economic advisor to the President of Djibouti in charge of bilateral relations between Djibouti and Germany, and focal person for Somalia. He worked for more than two decades in development cooperation in the Greater Horn of Africa region (including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda), Southern Africa (Zimbabwe), and Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. He also worked for German and international private and public organizations of development cooperation, including the German Foundation for International Cooperation (DSE), German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ); German Agency for Technical Relief (THW); UNDP and EU sponsored projects in Ethiopia. As early as 1982 he trained young professionals and experts in development cooperation to enhance the capacity and skills of staff of German organizations in country briefing (for Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia) on cooperation, projects management and cross-cultural communication.