Geothermal Training for Africa in the Time of COVID-19

The Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland (GTP) was established in late 1978 as a programme of the United Nations University (UNU-GTP).  Since 2020, it has been run within GRÓ – the International Centre for Capacity Development, Sustainable Use of Natural Resources and Societal Change, which is operated under the auspices of UNESCO (as GRÓ GTP).  The mission of GRÓ GTP is to support developing countries in building up teams of geothermal experts to carry out geothermal development.  This is achieved through an annual six-month training programme in Iceland, support for advanced studies at Icelandic universities, various courses and trainings online and on-site in partner countries, support to regional training centres, and more.  GTP operations have been affected by COVID-19 in various ways since the onset of the pandemic, with operations mostly returning to normal in 2022.  Although many aspects of GTP’s operations were postponed or cancelled in 2020, including the six-month training in Iceland, SDG Short Courses in El Salvador and Kenya, and the Geothermal Diploma Course for Latin America, it proved possible to support 5 MSc Fellows and 1 PhD Fellow in embarking on their studies in Iceland.  In 2021, it was again possible to run the six-month training programme on a COVID-adjusted schedule.  Furthermore, SDG Short Course V was held in Kenya in cooperation with KenGen and GDC, while the scheduled programs in El Salvador were still on hold.  In 2022, all key activities are expected to run, with only minor adjustments due to pandemic related limitations.  The pandemic has encouraged the use of internet-based communication tools, with many candidates for studies in Iceland being interviewed online.  In 2020, GTP contributed to the ARGeo-C8 conference, which was held entirely online, by organizing one of the pre-conference short courses.  This online debut was followed up with GTP’s Online Course on Geothermal Energy for African countries in April 2021, and similar courses held for Latin American and Caribbean countries on one hand and Asian and Pacific countries on the other in 2022.  The aim is to develop GTP’s online offerings further, to complement the traditional operations and reach an even larger audience.  In early 2021, ÍSOR – Iceland GeoSurvey assumed the role of GTP’s host institution, which had previously been the function of Orkustofnun – the National Energy Authority of Iceland.  At the beginning of 2022, GTP moved with ÍSOR to new premises at the outskirts of the Reykjavík capital area, which are expected to provide a conducive environment for the operation of Iceland-based activities.  At the end of 2021, 293 Fellows from Africa had completed the six-month training out of a total of 743 Fellows (39.4%), while 51 out of 87 (59%) graduated MSc Fellows and all 4 (100%) graduated PhD Fellows were from Africa.  Numerous short courses and training activities had also been implemented for African countries. Presented at the 9th African Rift Geothermal Conference, ARGeo-C9, Djibouti, November 2022. This manuscript was accepted for presentation at the conference. It is made available by the authors because an official publicly accessible proceedings collection was not available at the time of deposit. This is not an official proceedings edition.