2 African Energy Challenges in the Transition Era …
67
There are policy mandates to create a regional market for skills
and competences as formulated by the SADC and ECOWAS Industrial Policy Framework for a sustainable industrial development agenda
across the region. Against this background, experience sharing workshops are regularly hosted in collaboration with international partners.
For example, Energy Management and Independent Power Producers
Framework workshop in June 2015, a joint IRENA-SAPP workshop
on Renewable Energy Zoning in the region (2014), workshops on the
integration of renewable energy sources to the interconnected power
grid (2014 and 2015), a workshop on Framework for Open Access to
the Transmission Grid (2014), a World Bank Workshop on Water and
Energy Nexus in the Zambezi Basin and a Training on Equator Principles
and Due Diligence in 2014.
80
However, these policy mandates and initiatives have yielded little
progress in the development of national and regional experts. The
lack of techno-economic possibilities and the awareness of available
energy resources and technologies among nationals is quite notable.
81
Accordingly, the knowledge base of the socio-environmental impacts and
acceptability of the various existing technologies of the sector is quite
disturbing. These kinds of anomaly are directly linked to the lack of
expertise at the vocational and University levels in the region. Thus, the
role of regional cooperation is to channel funds towards research training
and development to address the national techno-human capabilities
deficit in both regions’ energy dynamics.
2.5 Conclusion/Recommendation
The ECOWAS and SADC regions are rich with an abundant array of
fossil and renewable energy resources capable of transforming the entire
80 Energy Sector Capacity Building Diagnostic & Needs Assessment Study, Sub-Saharan Power
Sector Capacity Building Diagnostic & Needs Assessment (2014) 1 African Development
Bank, Tunis, https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Energy_Sec
tor_Capacity_Building_Diagnostic_and_Needs_Assessment_Study.pdf, accessed March 2020.
81 ‘Energy for a Sustainable Future. Summary Report and Recommendations’, United Nations,
AGECC Report and Recommendations (New York, April 2010), https://www.un.org/millenniu
mgoals/pdf/AGECCsummaryreport[1].pdf, accessed March 23, 2020.
67
There are policy mandates to create a regional market for skills
and competences as formulated by the SADC and ECOWAS Industrial Policy Framework for a sustainable industrial development agenda
across the region. Against this background, experience sharing workshops are regularly hosted in collaboration with international partners.
For example, Energy Management and Independent Power Producers
Framework workshop in June 2015, a joint IRENA-SAPP workshop
on Renewable Energy Zoning in the region (2014), workshops on the
integration of renewable energy sources to the interconnected power
grid (2014 and 2015), a workshop on Framework for Open Access to
the Transmission Grid (2014), a World Bank Workshop on Water and
Energy Nexus in the Zambezi Basin and a Training on Equator Principles
and Due Diligence in 2014.
80
However, these policy mandates and initiatives have yielded little
progress in the development of national and regional experts. The
lack of techno-economic possibilities and the awareness of available
energy resources and technologies among nationals is quite notable.
81
Accordingly, the knowledge base of the socio-environmental impacts and
acceptability of the various existing technologies of the sector is quite
disturbing. These kinds of anomaly are directly linked to the lack of
expertise at the vocational and University levels in the region. Thus, the
role of regional cooperation is to channel funds towards research training
and development to address the national techno-human capabilities
deficit in both regions’ energy dynamics.
2.5 Conclusion/Recommendation
The ECOWAS and SADC regions are rich with an abundant array of
fossil and renewable energy resources capable of transforming the entire
80 Energy Sector Capacity Building Diagnostic & Needs Assessment Study, Sub-Saharan Power
Sector Capacity Building Diagnostic & Needs Assessment (2014) 1 African Development
Bank, Tunis, https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Publications/Energy_Sec
tor_Capacity_Building_Diagnostic_and_Needs_Assessment_Study.pdf, accessed March 2020.
81 ‘Energy for a Sustainable Future. Summary Report and Recommendations’, United Nations,
AGECC Report and Recommendations (New York, April 2010), https://www.un.org/millenniu
mgoals/pdf/AGECCsummaryreport[1].pdf, accessed March 23, 2020.