Final Report Summary - PARTNERS FOR AFRICA (Renewable energy partnerships for poverty eradication and sustainable development in Africa)
The PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project demonstrates and promotes the role of renewable energy in poverty eradication and policy-making activities in the areas of sustainable resource management, health and public health, and enterprise development. Specifically, the project succeeded in mobilising a variety of international and local renewable energy partnerships which provide support for the development of progressive energy policy initiatives and lay the foundations for concrete projects aiming at poverty alleviation and sustainable development in Africa.
Project results include a policy dialogue on cogeneration and bio-ethanol for Southern Africa in Durban, South Africa, a policy dialogue on biofuels, renewable energies for public health and enterprise development in Lusaka, Zambia, and the elaboration of a policy declaration to the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005 emphasising that renewable energy systems provide a practical and substantial opportunity for African countries to combat poverty.
The objective of the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project was to demonstrate the role of renewable energy in poverty eradication and to offer support to policy making activities in sustainable resource management, health and enterprise development. Thereby, the action supports and stimulates the activities of the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI). This initiative was launched at the Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development to help achieve the millennium development goals by creating a focus on better access to sustainable energy services for the more than two billion 'energy poor' of our planet.
International and local partnerships have been mobilised to support policy making. The partnerships are of three essential types: policy partnerships, programme partnerships and action partnerships. Policy partnerships support the development of progressive energy policy initiatives directly through research activities and stakeholder networking. Programme partnerships initiate and support training and capacity building initiatives. Action partnerships lay the foundations for concrete projects including pilot projects.
The project succeeded in mobilising a variety of international and local renewable energy partnerships which provide support for the development of progressive energy policy initiatives and lay the foundations for concrete projects. Project results include an active policy dialogue on the implementation of biomass based cogeneration and bioethanol production in Southern Africa as well as the identification of opportunities for liquid biofuels for the elaboration of a revised national energy policy in Zambia. Finally, the consortium elaborated a policy declaration to the G8 emphasising that renewable energy systems provide a substantial opportunity for African countries to combat poverty.
The internal information exchange platform and dynamic project website was created under the guidance of ITDG by Eco Ltd. between February 2004 and April 2004. The public webpage for PARTNERS FOR AFRICA was created for the domain name http://www.partners4africa.org. The system gives users of the internet worldwide access to information and latest news from the project through a user-friendly interface. Users can also contact project members directly from the web system. The webpage includes information about the project, the composition of the project consortium, information about the process of partnership formation, latest news from the project, information about events, a publication archive, and an extensive list of relevant web links (numbering 264 items as of April 2005).
Ongoing maintenance and promotion of the website has continued since it was created. This has meant that the website has been available to visitors continuously since creation, and that visitors are presented with up to date information from the project when they visit. The website has seen steady growth in users, with on average approximately 6 600 site hits per month over the past 12 months. Eco Ltd. will continue to host the website at own cost for the foreseeable future (at least a further 5 years until 2010).
A contact database has been created by Eco Ltd. as a subsystem of the public website, which is accessible to logged-in users of the system. This is a dynamic system allowing users to add and edit personal and organisation profiles, and view contacts by country or organisation. In this project database, international, regional and local contact partners for ongoing and future activities have been included. This database consists of partners and contacts of the three thematic networks Lamnet, Carensa and Sparknet as well as of contacts established during the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project. This database was continuously enlarged and updated during the course of this project. As of June 2005, the contact database consists of 218 names.
The PARTNERS FOR AFRICA newsletter was prepared and edited by the project partner SEI. The main goal of the newsletters is to create a forum of information for all project partners and relevant world-wide stakeholders about the activities of the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project and similar networks in the energy arena. Newsletter articles focus on bioenergy achievements, interesting project results and policy issues in the area of renewable energy partnerships for poverty eradication and sustainable development. In the framework of the project, four newsletter issues have been published, printed and distributed via email and on the occasion of high-level international events.
Project results include a policy dialogue on cogeneration and bio-ethanol for Southern Africa in Durban, South Africa, a policy dialogue on biofuels, renewable energies for public health and enterprise development in Lusaka, Zambia, and the elaboration of a policy declaration to the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005 emphasising that renewable energy systems provide a practical and substantial opportunity for African countries to combat poverty.
The objective of the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project was to demonstrate the role of renewable energy in poverty eradication and to offer support to policy making activities in sustainable resource management, health and enterprise development. Thereby, the action supports and stimulates the activities of the EU Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI). This initiative was launched at the Johannesburg World Summit for Sustainable Development to help achieve the millennium development goals by creating a focus on better access to sustainable energy services for the more than two billion 'energy poor' of our planet.
International and local partnerships have been mobilised to support policy making. The partnerships are of three essential types: policy partnerships, programme partnerships and action partnerships. Policy partnerships support the development of progressive energy policy initiatives directly through research activities and stakeholder networking. Programme partnerships initiate and support training and capacity building initiatives. Action partnerships lay the foundations for concrete projects including pilot projects.
The project succeeded in mobilising a variety of international and local renewable energy partnerships which provide support for the development of progressive energy policy initiatives and lay the foundations for concrete projects. Project results include an active policy dialogue on the implementation of biomass based cogeneration and bioethanol production in Southern Africa as well as the identification of opportunities for liquid biofuels for the elaboration of a revised national energy policy in Zambia. Finally, the consortium elaborated a policy declaration to the G8 emphasising that renewable energy systems provide a substantial opportunity for African countries to combat poverty.
The internal information exchange platform and dynamic project website was created under the guidance of ITDG by Eco Ltd. between February 2004 and April 2004. The public webpage for PARTNERS FOR AFRICA was created for the domain name http://www.partners4africa.org. The system gives users of the internet worldwide access to information and latest news from the project through a user-friendly interface. Users can also contact project members directly from the web system. The webpage includes information about the project, the composition of the project consortium, information about the process of partnership formation, latest news from the project, information about events, a publication archive, and an extensive list of relevant web links (numbering 264 items as of April 2005).
Ongoing maintenance and promotion of the website has continued since it was created. This has meant that the website has been available to visitors continuously since creation, and that visitors are presented with up to date information from the project when they visit. The website has seen steady growth in users, with on average approximately 6 600 site hits per month over the past 12 months. Eco Ltd. will continue to host the website at own cost for the foreseeable future (at least a further 5 years until 2010).
A contact database has been created by Eco Ltd. as a subsystem of the public website, which is accessible to logged-in users of the system. This is a dynamic system allowing users to add and edit personal and organisation profiles, and view contacts by country or organisation. In this project database, international, regional and local contact partners for ongoing and future activities have been included. This database consists of partners and contacts of the three thematic networks Lamnet, Carensa and Sparknet as well as of contacts established during the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project. This database was continuously enlarged and updated during the course of this project. As of June 2005, the contact database consists of 218 names.
The PARTNERS FOR AFRICA newsletter was prepared and edited by the project partner SEI. The main goal of the newsletters is to create a forum of information for all project partners and relevant world-wide stakeholders about the activities of the PARTNERS FOR AFRICA project and similar networks in the energy arena. Newsletter articles focus on bioenergy achievements, interesting project results and policy issues in the area of renewable energy partnerships for poverty eradication and sustainable development. In the framework of the project, four newsletter issues have been published, printed and distributed via email and on the occasion of high-level international events.
