EEP Southern and East Africa Results and Way Forward Seminar takes place in Pretoria
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland (MFA Finland), the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and NDF met with representatives of 10 other agencies at the Embassy of Finland in Pretoria to highlight latest results from the Energy and Environment Partnership Programme (EEP) for Southern and East Africa (SEA) and share a preview of the way forward and strategic directions for the next phase.
The seminar was hosted by Finland’s Ambassador to South Africa, Kari Alanko, at the Embassy of Finland and timed to coincide with the release of the latest EEP Monitoring and Evaluation Report.
NDF Deputy Managing Director and Vice President for Operations, Leena Klossner, and Country Program Manager, Charles Wetherill, joined colleagues from MFA Finland and DFID to report on latest results from the current phase of EEP and preview plans for the next phase, planned to launch in January 2018.
EEP-SEA is currently financed by MFA Finland, DFID and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA). It provides grant financing to support testing, feasibility and scale up of innovative technologies and business models for improving access to clean energy and stimulating growth of the green economy across 13 countries in the SEA region, identifying projects through an open challenge fund mechanism and selecting on competitive basis for innovation, commercial scale-up potential and impact on low income households and communities.
Since 2010, the programme has conducted 13 rounds of calls for proposals, received more than 1800 proposals and funded just over 200 projects for total commitment volume of close to €60 million. It has been an early catalyst for many of today’s recognised energy access success stories across the region and established itself as a driver of inclusive green economic growth and knowledge exchange among donors, policy makers and project developers.
The second phase of EEP-SEA is scheduled to conclude in January 2018. NDF and the group of donors to the current phase are now in active phase of preparations and planning to restructure the programme as an open ended multi donor trust fund facility and engage additional donor partners around this proven and transformative green economy initiative.
The latest EEP Monitoring and Evaluation Report as well as latest knowledge briefs, case studies and success stories from EEP projects can be accessed at the EEP website.
Key upcoming EEP events for donors, policy makers, investors and project developers include the EEP Knowledge Exchange Forum in Lusaka on April 11th and the EEP Investor Forum in Nairobi on May 30th. Interested participants are encouraged to contact the Programme team through the website.