Nuru Ethiopia Wins RAIN Challenge Award at COP31 for Agroforestry Innovation

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 13, 2026

Contact: Tatek Amataw | info@nuruet.org

ARBA MINCH – Nuru Ethiopia has been named a winner of the Resilient Agriculture Innovations for Nature (RAIN) Challenge, led by the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP). The recognition, announced at the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31) in Antalya, Türkiye, on November 11, 2026, highlights Nuru Ethiopia’s work to strengthen climate resilience through locally-led, cooperative-based agricultural solutions.

Supported by the Global Resilience Partnership, Trafigura Foundation, Shockwave Foundation, and Munich Re Foundation, the RAIN Challenge identifies and supports promising agricultural innovations that address climate and environmental challenges in East Africa. Selected from more than 1,900 initial applications, Nuru Ethiopia joins 37 winning global initiatives receiving financial support, investor connections, tailored monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) mentoring, and communications support to advance their solutions.

Nuru Ethiopia’s winning initiative, Local MRV Systems for Cooperative Agroforestry in Ethiopia, addresses a practical challenge facing rural farming communities: effectively measuring and tracking the success of agroforestry efforts. Agroforestry offers farmers opportunities to restore degraded land, improve soil health, and strengthen resilience to climate shocks. However, without reliable systems to monitor seedling production, transplanting, and tree survival, cooperative agribusinesses face challenges in measuring progress and making informed decisions about their investments.

Through this initiative, Nuru Ethiopia will work with the Esipe Dicha Union in Ethiopia’s Gofa Zone to introduce practical, locally managed measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV) tools. The union serves 11,498 farmer households, and the project will equip cooperative leaders with better information to monitor tree survival, improve agroforestry practices, and track progress toward long-term land restoration.

Building on lessons from the initial implementation, Nuru Ethiopia aims to expand the approach across its network of seven cooperative unions, collectively serving more an additional 38,000 farmer households through this initiative. 

“Lasting climate resilience begins with farmers and the local institutions they own and lead. This recognition is an opportunity to build on the work our cooperative unions are already doing to restore degraded land and strengthen rural livelihoods. By giving cooperatives practical tools to measure their progress and make informed decisions, we can help ensure these efforts deliver lasting benefits for farming families and their communities.”

-Nuru Ethiopia Managing Director Abiy Meshesha 

The recognition reflects Nuru Ethiopia’s continued commitment to strengthening locally-led cooperative agribusinesses that help rural communities build more resilient livelihoods. By equipping farmer-owned organizations with practical tools and reliable data, the initiative seeks to make agroforestry efforts more effective, measurable, and sustainable over time.

Cooperative agribusiness members working at a Nuru Ethiopia-supported tree nursery, 2025

About Nuru Ethiopia

Nuru Ethiopia is a local nonprofit organization that works to build resilience in vulnerable communities in rural Ethiopia by developing member-owned agribusiness enterprises to lift families out of extreme poverty by 2030. Since 2012, Nuru Ethiopia has impacted more than 235,000 people by supporting 286 member-owned agribusinesses.

About the Global Resilience Partnership

The Global Resilience Partnership (GRP) is a global partnership working to advance resilience in vulnerable communities through locally-led innovation, collaboration, and investment. GRP operates through two aligned organizational entities: the independently registered GRP Non-Profit Company (GRP NPC) in South Africa and the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) in Sweden.