EfD’s Director, Gunnar Köhlin, signed an agreement with the President of Addis Ababa University, Samuel Kifle, on November 21st to establish an EfD center at the University. This extension is a strategic move to strengthen the academic profile of the current EfD center at the Policy Studies Institute (PSI).
In particular, it allows building on the training of PhD students that has been done jointly between AAU/Department of Economics and EfD Global Hub in recent years.
The Inclusive Green Economy (IGE) program will continue to be coordinated by the Environment and Climate Research Centre at PSI during 2025.
"Have done fantastic work"
“Ethiopia is the birthplace of EfD. EfD, as a network, was launched in 2007 based on the experiences from the Environmental Economics Policy Forum for Ethiopia, which was started at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute in 2003. Researchers at that center have done fantastic work over the years,” says Gunnar Köhlin.
Focus on capacity building and impactful research
"But since then, EfD has evolved to primarily become a network of premier academic institutions with strong links to graduate academic programs. In line with this strategic move, we are now happy to extend the Ethiopian EfD center to also formally include a center at the College of Business and Economics, Addis Ababa University. This development will ensure that the center has the best conditions to continue to undertake policy-relevant academic capacity building as well as impactful policy research.”
Addis Ababa University will be the official host institution for EfD Ethiopia starting January 2025, with continued strong involvement of researchers at the Environment and Climate Research Centre at PSI.
By: Petra Hansson