“In the Eye of the Storm”: How Off-Grid Renewable Energy delivers Win/Win for Rural Africa and the World

Service Category: Capacity & Training

Type of Client: International Development Partner

Service: The Environment Crisis is no longer a joke! We were delighted to be in a consortium to assess the demand and supply of skills for the Off-Grid Distributed Renewable Energy (OGDRE) sector in a West African country and two Southern African countries.

What we did: Our work included:
·      Mapping current and future skills demand in line with OGDRE growth and emerging technologies.
·      Assessing vocational and university training capacity against OGDRE requirements.
·      Identifying skills gaps in installation, maintenance, customer engagement and business management.
·      Examining participation barriers for women, youth, persons with disabilities and rural people.
·      Developing a skills development roadmap.
·      Identifying transferable lessons from the three countries to each other and the rest of the continent.

Foresight Created: OGDRE benefits re-affirmed included:

Rural Electrification: provides affordable and scalable power options.

Access to Services: improves access to healthcare, quality education, access to clean water and small business services etc.

Environment: reduces reliance on polluting fossil fuels, contributing to reduced deforestation.

Rural/Urban migration: potentially reduces burdens on over-crowded cities with inadequate infrastructure.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): supports related United Nations SDGs.