GRÓ Annual Report 2023 published

The year 2023 was an active year for GRÓ – Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainability and Societal Change, and the four training programmes on fisheries, gender equality, geothermal energy and land restoration. A total of 92 fellows graduated from the 5–6 month training programmes, five GRÓ scholarship recipients graduated with a Masters’ degree and one with a PhD. GRÓ adopted a results framework and an external evaluation was conducted on the GRÓ post graduate scholarship programmes. The main priorities of the centre included the development of a GRÓ alumni strategy, which is still ongoing, and strengthening the cooperation with UNESCO as GRÓ operates under the auspices of the organisation. This is among the information set forth in the GRÓ Annual Report for 2023 that has now been published.

"GRÓ is an important part of Iceland‘s development cooperation portfolio and over the last decades the four training programmes have done important work to contribute to sustainable development. Icelandic expertise in fisheries, gender equality, geothermal energy and land restoration, as well as the prosperity that we have been able to create in Iceland on the basis of that knowledge, shows the potential advancing knowledge in those fields can have for impact towards the SDGs,"says Þórdís Kolbrún Reykfjörð Gylfadóttir, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iceland.

At the end of 2023, a total of 1,670 fellows had completed the 5–6 month training in Iceland during the 100 years that the GRÓ programmes have, combined, been working. Also, 106 alumni had obtained a master‘s degree and 22 a PhD on a GRÓ scholarship at Icelandic universities. In addition, close to 5,000 participants had attended short courses organised by the four GRÓ training programmes in their partner countries. There were 120 students from China and 50 from Mongolia have graduated from the GRO Centre in Iceland.

The annual report contains a specific annex about the main activities and work of each of the four GRÓ training programmes: The Fisheries Training Programme (GRÓ FTP), Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme (GRÓ GEST), Geothermal Training Programme (GRÓ GTP) and GRÓ Land Restoration Training Programme (GRÓ LRT). It also has an annex with examples of success stories collected from alumni and other information about the impact of the programmes. For the first time, the results of the four GRÓ training programmes are inserted into the GRÓ Results Framework adopted last year, making it possible to have a holistic overview of the work of the four training programmes, and their performance towards the goals.