National Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) Capacity Building towards Climate Resilient Development in Ethiopia. It was financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Royal Norwegian Government through its Embassy in Ethiopia. The Project grant agreement worth Norwegian Kroner 36, 500,000 was signed on Dec. 08, 2014 between the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development later named as Ministry of Finance of Ethiopia and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. It was officially launched at Wondo Genet in Aug 2015 and will be running until Dec 2020.
The project was initiated with the aim of national capacity building in MRV systems to enable Ethiopia participate effectively in an international REDD+ regime to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from forestry and activities related to forest utilization and management. The main project partners are Hawassa University, Wondo Genet College of Forestry & Natural Resources and Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU). Key national and international collaborators include the Environment, Forest and Climate Change Commission (EFCCC), the Oromia Environment, Forest and Climate Change Authority (OEFCCA), the Environmental Protection, Forestry and Climate Change Authority of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional State, the Oromia Forest and Wildlife Enterprise (OFWE), the Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI), the Energy Center of the Addis Ababa University Institute of Technology, the Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and The Sokoine University of Agriculture.
The project has got three outcomes. Outcome one focuses on strengthening the institutional capacity of Wondo Genet College of Forestry & Natural Resources (WGCFNR) to conduct education, training and research in MRV through strengthening staff capacity and infrastructure required for the purpose. Outcome two deals with improving capacity of professionals from public and private institutions to carry out MRV at federal, regional and local levels by way of providing a series of short term training in MRV methods, and MSc education in three MRV related graduate programs, namely, Forest Resource Assessment and Monitoring, Climate Smart Agricultural Landscape Assessment, and Renewable Energy Utilization and Management. Outcome three of the project deals with establishing or strengthening national and international networking and collaboration with key institutions in the country and abroad. Each outcome has got a number of outputs, among which three most notable ones are the national human capacity building in MRV, the establishment/strengthening of infrastructure for MRV training and research at WGCFNR, and establishment of MRV Capacity Center (MRVCC) at WGCFNR.