Successful launch of the Inclusive Green Economy in Practice Forum

The Inclusive Green Economy in Practice Program has launched a new important event: The annual, national IGE Forums, which is the main event for disseminating knowledge from the program. The first IGE Forums took place in July and August 2024 and attracted the attendance of very high-level participants and media attention.

The IGE program is aimed at civil servants in five countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. The EfD Centers in each country host all the national activities, except for Rwanda where EfD South Africa has the coordinating role.

The five national IGE Forums had some common features:

A session where the enrolled civil servants (IGE Fellows) disseminate results and lessons learned from their Transformation Initiatives, that is, actions toward implementing policies for an inclusive green economy
A session where the research partners present selected highlights from the IGE training
An interactive workshop for discussion and networking for all participants
Distribution ceremony of certificates to IGE Fellows 2023-2024

The Tanzanian team — Tanzania's IGE Fellows, IGE alumni, and IGE support team. Photo: Salvatory Macha.

Participants in the forums were the graduating IGE Fellows of 2023-2024, IGE Alumni (the program has previously graduated three cohorts), the local support teams at each EfD Center, and other stakeholders, for instance from the private sector, academia, and government.

The IGE Forum in Uganda was, for instance, attended by the Swedish Ambassador Maria Håkansson, the Energy Minister Okaasai Opolot, and the Makerere University Vice Chancellor, Barnabas Nawangwe, among many others. Ambassador Maria Håkansson underlined the importance of universal access to clean energy sources and commended the IGE Fellows for their important efforts to promote a transition to clean energy.

EfD Ethiopia took the opportunity to combine their IGE Forum with a special two-day workshop on environmental policy instruments for IGE alumni (2021 and 2022) and current IGE fellows. The participants represented institutions such as the Ministry of Water and Energy, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Planning and Development, the Petroleum and Energy Authority, and the Environmental Protection Authority.

IGE training session — The Ethiopian team took the opportunity to combine the IGE Forum with a two-day training on IGE policy instruments. Photo: EfD Ethiopia.

One important purpose of the IGE Forums is to promote the collaborations between all the IGE Fellows, researchers, and other stakeholders and build a strong Community of Practice for IGE reforms for government organizations, sector stakeholders, and academia in the country.

IGE Forums were held in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.