GRÓ and UNESCO explore opportunities for enhanced cooperation in Uganda

GRÓ and UNESCO explored opportunities to enhance cooperation in Uganda during the visit of the Director General of GRÓ to the country earlier this week. GRÓ is a Category 2 Centre that works under the auspices of UNESCO. Uganda has been a priority partner country for all of the four GRÓ programmes on geothermal energy, fisheries, land restoration and gender equality; in total 109 fellows have come to the programmes from Uganda.

A meeting was held at UNESCO‘s offices in Kampala, where Mr. Charles Draecabo, the head of the UNESCO Kampala office and his colleagues, welcomed Ms. Nína Björk Jónsdóttir, the Director General of GRÓ, Mr. Maurice Ssebisubi, Senior Programme Officer at the Embassy of Iceland in Kampala, that is also a former GRÓ Fisheries Training Programme fellow and dr. Godfrey Kawooya Kubiriza, also a former GRÓ FTP fellow and PhD scholarship recipient, and now a senior lecturer at Makerere University. The meeting focused on how GRÓ and UNESCO in Uganda can increase their cooperation, as so many fellows have come from the country.

Nína Björk and Maurice also had a meeting with Ms. Rosie Agoi, the Secretary General of the Ugandan National Commission to UNESCO. Ms. Agoi explained the role and priorities of the Ugandan government regarding UNESCO in Uganda.

Ms. Agoi and Mr. Draecabo also attended a GRÓ alumni seminar at the Embassy of Iceland in Kampala where they had the opportunity to engage directly with the fellows and hear about their time in Iceland at the four GRÓ Programmes. They also told the alumni of the work of UNESCO in Uganda and in the region of Eastern Africa.