Powering Jobs
Various events were held to continue to disseminate the findings of the 2022 Powering Jobs census. The Nigeria Powering Jobs census report was launched virtually on September 30, 2022. You can watch the recording of the session here and read the press release here.
Power for All’s Director of Research, Dr. Carolina Pan, presented the findings of the global report at the Global Off-Grid Solar Forum and Expo in the panel discussion "Maximizing Impact in the Off-Grid Sector: through the lens of Domestic Content, Ownership and Employment Generation" in Kigali on October 19.
On October 20, Power for All together with our Ugandan country partner, Uganda National Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Alliance (UNREEEA), launched the Powering Jobs Census 2022: Focus on Uganda report via a media release. The findings of the census report were further discussed in the NTV Morning talk show. The talk show focussed on the recovery and steps needed to strengthen the DRE sector in Uganda.
On October 21, Power for All, participated in the World Energy Day event at Mombasa, Kenya, where our Partnership and Campaign Manager, Anand Pathanjali, presented the findings of the Powering Jobs Census 2022: Focus on Kenya to the country’s stakeholders. A press release on the findings was also sent out on the same day.
With these events, the launch of 2022 Powering Jobs census reports comes to an end, but the campaign will continue with advocacy on the identified focus areas. These are training, gender inclusion and strengthening the Public-Private partnership ecosystem in the five countries.
Powering Agriculture
Power for All has begun the implementation of the Powering Agriculture campaign in Ethiopia. The campaign aims to sustainably energize Ethiopia’s agriculture sector utilizing Decentralized Renewable Energy solutions (DREs) for improved productivity and income generation. The country team is currently conducting stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions with farmer groups, DRE sector companies and relevant government officials to establish existing barriers to productive use of energy in Ethiopia’s agrifood systems.
On November 1, 2022, Power for All will sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia represented by the Ministry of Irrigation and Lowlands to signify the start of this initiative. Power for All will work with the Government to address gaps and ensure that the foundation for DRE and Productive Use of Energy (PUE) market transformation is laid by coordinating key market actors, creating awareness of PUE for agriculture and obtaining buy in of influencers and policymakers to strengthen the policy regime needed for scaling PUE in the agrifood systems.
India 25x25
In India, Power for All’s working action group “Solar Agro Saathi” hosted a webinar on Powering Agriculture through the Productive use of Renewable Energy (PURE) on October 26, 2022. This is a follow-up meeting of the working action group to scale up PURE applications in the agriculture value chain. One of key aims of this webinar was to find ways to implement the agriculture roadmap developed for the state to strengthen the agriculture value chain and add more jobs through DRE application in the state of Jharkhand.
The speakers included Bishnu C Parida, Chief Operating Officer,Jharkhand State Livelihood Promotion Society (JSLPS), Mandvi Singh, Programme Lead, iForest, Kuldeep Mehta, Clean energy solution coordinator, LEADS and Ashwani Ashok, Program Manager, Power for All. The discussions stressed the need for maximizing PURE applications in Jharkhand to create additional income generation opportunities apart from agriculture based applications.
Power for All has also partnered with the SwitchOn Foundations for the DRE Expo in Ranchi during the second week of November. Follow us on our social media for updates on this expo.
Powering Health
In the month of October, Power for All officially joined the Health and Energy Platform of Action (HEPA). Power for All is one of the 25 members of this coalition. Recognizing how essential access to clean and sustainable energy is to disease prevention and treatment, the WHO Director General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his commitment to enhancing cooperation between the health and energy stakeholders at the World Health Organization (WHO)’s first conference on Air Pollution and Health.
Building upon this call, in 2019, WHO, UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (DESA); UN Development Programme (UNDP); World Bank and the strong support of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and other key stakeholders, established the Health and Energy Platform of Action (HEPA). This Platform aims to build the political, and financial commitment and as well as strengthen the capacity of the health and energy sectors to work together to ensure universal access to clean and sustainable energy to protect health.
The long-term vision of the global platform is to improve the health and livelihoods of the poorest populations through the adoption of clean and sustainable energy. With an initial focus on clean cooking and health-care facility electrification, the platform aims to catalyze the scale of results required to achieve SDG 3 on health, SDG 7 on energy and others on gender (SDG 5) and climate (SDG 13) by:
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mobilizing political commitment, support and resources, and find ways of encouraging new public and private commitment from the energy and health sectors, climate change action and other arenas;
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promoting development of global or country implementation road maps for the priority areas of action;
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demonstrating leadership by identifying significant actions and initiatives with relevant stakeholders, with the overall objective of generating action and maximizing impact on the ground;
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conducting advocacy and outreach at high-level international engagements related to the SDGs, especially those on health, energy, environment, gender and climate change; and
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promoting an interdisciplinary approach, engaging a variety of stakeholders at the global, regional and national level and building on existing initiatives, while avoiding duplication of effort, fostering alignment and creating strong synergies.
Utilities 2.0.
In the Utilities 2.0 Campaign, Power for All and Umeme are working with the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) on the modalities of interconnecting the mini-grid in Kiwumu, Mukono district, to the main grid. This would be the first of its kind integrated energy model in Uganda to fast track, and reduce electrification cost.
Do watch out for more updates on this in our next newsletter and follow us on social media.