AFRETEP Regional Workshops

Wed, 11/16/2011 - 10:52 — irenepinedo

Within the capacity building activities, AFRETEP project has organised a series of 3 regional workshops, inviting 96 participants from 30 African countries. While the three workshops have had in common the exchange of expertise and experience with and within African Research Centers, the focus of each one was harmonised and decided together with the host region, seeking the fit between the training and expertise we can provide with their needs and interest.

		Trainees			Trainees			Trainees
1	Algeria	1	11	Guinea C.	1	21	São Tomé e P.	1
2	Botswana	5	12	Kenya	4	22	Senegal	3
3	Burkina Faso	6	13	Lesotho	1	23	South Africa	5
4	Burundi	1	14	Madagascar	2	24	Sudan	1
5	Cameroon	4	15	Malawi	3	25	Swaziland	1
6	Cape Verde	2	16	Mali	2	26	Tanzania	8
7	Chad	1	17	Mauritius	1	27	Togo	2
8	Ethiopia	4	18	Mozambique	1	28	Uganda	12
9	Ghana	8	19	Nigeria	7	29	Zambia	2
10	Guinea B.	1	20	Rwanda	1	30	Zimbabwe	5

Following this approach, the list of the regional workshops along with their topics are as follows:

AFRETEP 1 ^st Regional Workshop: East Africa . It took place in Kampala, Uganda, from 3 ^rd to 7 ^th October 2011 with the support of Centre of Research in Energy and Energy Conservation of the Makerere University. Regional topics: Social-economic aspects, Mini Hydro projects and Photovoltaic technology and mapping.
AFRETEP 2 ^nd Regional Workshop: West Africa . It took place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, from 7 ^th -11 ^th November 2011 with the support of Foundation 2iE. Regional topics: Biomass and Photovoltaic technology and mapping.
AFRETEP 3 ^rd Regional Workshop: Southern Africa . It took place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 20 ^th -24 ^th with the support of the Energy Research Centre, University of Cape Town. Regional topics: financial schemes, photovoltaic technology-mapping and poverty reduction through rural electrification.

This section of the AFRETEP WorkGroup site aims at:

· gather the information provided during the above mentioned workshops.

· make this information available for the AFRETEP WorkGroup.

Please, use the following links to access the information of each workshop:

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Regional workshops play an important role in bringing together practitioners who share an interest in renewable energy across African countries. By gathering researchers, policymakers, and technical experts in a common setting, these events create space for the exchange of perspectives that might otherwise remain scattered across institutions. The focus of each gathering is often shaped in collaboration with the host region, which helps ensure that the agenda reflects local priorities and capacities while still aligning with broader continental objectives around sustainable development and energy access.

Capacity building is a long-term process that benefits from sustained dialogue rather than one-off interventions. Workshops that pool participants from many countries encourage peer learning and help establish networks that endure beyond a single meeting agenda. In the renewable energy field, such networks are particularly valuable because they allow centres of expertise to share laboratory experiences, training approaches, and approaches to technology transfer, all of which contribute to a stronger collective knowledge base that can be drawn upon when new projects are designed and implemented in subsequent phases of cooperation.

Harmonising training content with regional needs requires careful coordination between international partners and local hosts. When workshop themes are decided jointly, the resulting discussions tend to address challenges that are directly relevant to the participating institutions, whether those relate to solar resource assessment, energy efficiency, or grid integration of distributed generation. This participatory approach also helps build a sense of ownership among attendees, which in turn encourages continued engagement with the platform and supports the gradual development of regional communities of practice around renewable energy technologies.

Documentation of workshop outcomes is an often-underestimated step in international cooperation initiatives. Capturing presentations, participant lists, and key discussion points creates a reference that can inform future training design and provide evidence of progress for stakeholders who were not able to attend. Such records also help align the work of one regional workshop with that of subsequent gatherings, ensuring that lessons learned in one location are carried forward and built upon, rather than being repeated or overlooked as the programme moves from one phase to the next.

Cooperation between African research centres and international partners illustrates how shared expertise can accelerate the deployment of renewable energy solutions. When workshops are designed to combine technical sessions with open discussion, they allow participants to test new ideas against local realities and to identify pathways for collaboration that suit the resources available in each country. Over time, these exchanges contribute to a more interconnected landscape of renewable energy research and practice, supporting the wider goals of sustainable energy access and inclusive growth across the continent.

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