Energy Week - Abidjan March 27 - 31 2017
24 March 2017
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is hosting and co-organizing the Energy Week, a series of events, including high-level discussions and partnerships focusing on lighting up and powering Africa, and unlocking the continent's huge energy potential. The Energy Week runs from Monday, March 27 to Friday, March 31, 2017 in Abidjan.
Events taking place during the Energy Week include a high-level workshop on energy access in West Africa, an Off-Grid Revolution expert consultation workshop and a SEforALL Africa workshop.
High-level workshop on energy access in West Africa
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) together with Smart Villages Initiative and the European Union Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF), are pleased to host the "High-level workshop on energy access in West Africa" from March 27 to 28, 2017 in Abidjan.
The workshop will serve as a kick-off event as part of a wider capacity-building engagement on clean energy mini-grids (CEMGs) in the ECOWAS region and will provide relevant insights to the challenges facing countries in West Africa with regards to CEMGs. In addition, a core component of the workshop is an opportunity to reflect on, and consequently to refine, the conclusions and recommendations from the Smart Villages West Africa engagement programme. The objective is to communicate the experiences, views, and recommendations of front-line individuals and organisations to policymakers in West Africa on how off-grid energy access can be achieved so as to catalyse productive enterprises and the provision of essential services such as healthcare and education in rural villages.
The workshop is invitation-only.
For more information on the workshop please contact:
Nicola Bugatti (ECREEE), nbugatti@ecreee.org; Silvia Puddu (EUEI PDF), silvia.cabriolu-puddu@euei-pdf.org; or Stephanie Hirmer stephi.e4sv@gmail.com (SVI),
Off-Grid Revolution Expert Consultation Workshop
The Bank Group's strategy for the New Deal on Energy for Africa, approved by the Board last year, takes a holistic view of the sector's needs encompassing on-grid generation, transmission and distribution and distributed solutions, and sets an aspirational target of universal access by 2025. To achieve the ambition of the New Deal, AfDB is developing a programmatic approach to accelerate investments in the off-grid sector where commercially-minded businesses are emerging, driven by innovations in digital finance and rapidly decreasing technology costs.
The Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth Complex (PEVP) is convening a one-day workshop in Abidjan, to share expertise and support the development of a roadmap for enabling the Off-Grid Revolution. The workshop also aims to agree on basic partnership arrangements across different stakeholder groups. Participants will include leading and emerging businesses, country-representatives, civil society, Industry bodies, local financial institutions, key development partners, technology providers and impact investors.
The plenary session starts at 9 a.m. on March 28 in the Auditorium of the Centre de Commerce International d'Abidjan (CCIA) building in the Plateau. The working group sessions are invitation-only.
For information on the workshop, please contact:
Joao Duarte Cunha, j.cunha@afdb.org, or AfDB Off Grid Revolution, off-grid-revolution@afdb.org
For communications:
Sonia Borrini, s.borrini@afdb.org, and Samuel Mikenga, s.mikenga@afdb.org
4th SEforALL Africa Workshop
The SEforALL Africa Hub hosted by the African Development Bank in partnership with the African Union Commission, the NEPAD Agency, UNDP, and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat (representing the Regional Economic Communities) and in collaboration with the SEforALL Global Facilitation Team organises the 4th Annual SEforALL Africa Workshop from March 29-30, 2017 in the CCIA building.
The workshop will review the state of the advancement of SEforALL country action in Africa, discuss how to accelerate the implementation and financing of the priorities identified in the SEforALL Action Agendas and Investment Prospectus under development in many African countries. The meeting will also explore how to ensure a maximum degree of synergies with other key initiatives on the continent, including the Africa Renewable Energy initiative (AREI) and the New Deal on Energy for Africa. The event will bring together African institutions, SEforALL focal points, development partners active in Africa, private sector and civil society representatives.
The plenary session starts at 9 a.m. on March 29, 2017 in the Auditorium of the CCIA. The working group sessions are invitation-only.
For information on the workshop, please contact: SEforALL.africa@afdb.org
About the AfDB's Power, Energy, Climate Change and Green Growth Complex
The Power, Energy, Climate change and Green Growth Sector Complex (PEVP), was created to fulfill the objectives of "Light Up and Power Africa"- principally achieving universal access to electricity by 2025. The Complex will accomplish this by building Africa's energy systems while ensuring green growth. The entire development ecosystem for operational effectiveness, scale, socio- economic, and environmental impact will be taken into account. The New Deal on Energy for Africa, together with the inter-connected flagship programs is a top initiative of PEVP.
About SEforALL
Launched in 2011, the Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) Initiative aims to ensure universal access to modern energy services, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewable energy in the global mix by 2030. The SEforALL Action Agenda is a country-level umbrella framework for energy sector development with a long-term vision, ensuring overall sector-wide coherence and synergy of the accumulated efforts towards the three goals. The Investment Prospectus provides an approach to operationalizing the Country Action Agenda towards achieving SEforALL goals by identifying and developing a set of implementable programs and projects, including their investment requirements, that can be presented to potential private and public investors. Almost 30 African countries are in the process of developing their SEforALL Action Agendas and many are also working on dedicated Investment Prospectuses.
About ECREEE
ECREEE is a specialized agency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) which acts as an independent body, within the legal, administrative and financial framework of ECOWAS rules and regulations. The overall objective of ECREEE is to contribute to the sustainable economic, social and environmental development of West Africa by improving access to modern, reliable and affordable energy services, energy security and reduction of energy-related GHG emissions and climate change impacts on the energy system.
About Smart Villages Initiative
The Smart Villages Initiative is a three-year project evaluating ways of providing off-grid energy as a catalyst for development for rural villages and encouraging the transfer of knowledge and experience between different developing regions. Through a series of international workshops and follow-up activities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, its aim is to provide policymakers, donors, entrepreneurs, researchers, media and other stakeholders with new insights into the challenges of supplying village-level energy and how they might be overcome. Smart Villages is funded by CMEDT, a Cambridge, UK-based charity, and the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
www.e4sv.org
About EUEI PDF
Within the framework of the European Union Energy Initiative (EUEI), the Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF) is an instrument developed and funded by a number of EU Member States and the European Commission. Created in 2005, the overall objective of the EUEI PDF is to support the development of policies and strategies for the promotion of access to energy at national and regional level. The EUEI PDF is currently supported by the governments of Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Sweden as well as the European Commission.
