The participants in Inclusive Green Economy (IGE) program – IGE fellows – have now met on several occasions for seminars, workshops, and discussions. Meet Mustefa Abu from the Ministry of Agriculture in Ethiopia, one of the IGE fellows!
The IGE program has been up and running for about half a year and the IGE fellows have participated in several activities. This fall includes, among others, two 2-day-workshops plus meetings to present the national policy reviews, where current policies have been analyzed, as well as working on their individual projects.
Tracks greenhouse gas emissions
Mustefa Abu is a Senior Climate Change Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification expert at the Ministry of Agriculture, Environment and Climate Change Coordination Directorate in Ethiopia. This long title includes among others keeping track of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions and dealing with global commitments, strategies, interventions, challenges, and areas of improvement.
“I am also engaged in Greenhouse Gases Emission (GHG) inventory activities, especially for the agricultural sector, explains Mustefa Abu.
“ I report to the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC), which is the designated entity for UNFCCC. I facilitate training related to GHG Emission inventories for federal and regional experts and I also participate in vulnerability assessment.”
Will have a social impact
The IGE fellows will spend much of the latter part of the program working on their individual projects. Mustefa Abu has called his project Integrated agricultural development for climate change adaptation and mitigation.
“This project includes proposing a comprehensive set of climate-smart agricultural initiatives for crops, livestock, and natural resources. The measures include sustainable land management, crop productivity and efficiency, livestock productivity and efficiency, and access to climate information and insurance,” he says.
“My ambition is that it will have an environmental and economical as well as a social impact.”
Important grassroots perspective
Being an IGE fellow means that you will be an ambassador for the program and bring the knowledge and experiences that you have shared with the other IGE fellows back to your team.
Mustefa Abu appreciates the exchange of experiences with his peers in the program. He also emphasizes that it’s very important to work at a grassroots level to be successful with green reforms.
Facts, the IGE program
EfD and the Gothenburg Centre for Sustainable Development (GMV) at the University of Gothenburg, collaborate in this program where civil servants from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda participate to share insights and tools for a transition towards an Inclusive Green Economy.
By: Petra Hansson