GRÓ GTP and LRT fellows visit the President of Iceland

Fellows from the GRÓ Geothermal and Land Restoration Training Programmes and staff of the GRÓ centre and the two training programmes, were invited on the 18th of August to Bessastaðir, the Icelandic Presidential Residence to meet with the President Halla Tómasdóttir.

The visit was a unique opportunity for the GRÓ fellows to have a discussion with the Icelandic President on sustainable development and their experience from the training in Iceland and how it will benefit their work back home.

President Halla Tómasdóttir welcomed the fellows to Bessastaðir and spoke about the importance of dialogue, gender equality, advancing geothermal energy and protecting and restoring ecosystems.

Nína Björk Jónsdóttir, Director General of GRÓ, thanked the President for the invitation to come to Bessastaðir and spoke about how the more than 1800 GRÓ alumni around the world contribute through their work to advancing sustainable development in their home countries and regions, as well as improving the lives of people.

Bjarni Richter, the Director of the GRÓ Geothermal Training Programme, spoke about the history of the programme, that invited the first fellows to Iceland in 1979. Esther Kimani, GRÓ GTP fellow from Kenya, spoke about her experience in the programme and how the cooperation of GRÓ GTP and Kenyan energy companies has helped Kenya develop its great geothermal potential and how Kenya outgrew Iceland in terms of installed geothermal energy in 2018.

Sjöfn Vilhelmsdóttir, Director of the GRÓ Land Restoration Training Programme, spoke about the importance of ecosystem restoration and how lessons from Iceland‘s history can be applied in other countries facing desertification and ecosystem collapse. Maxwell Kudzala from Malawi spoke about his experience from the programme and emphasized the need to address gender disparities in the socio-economic and ecological impacts of natural resource use.