News
On March 25, 2010 ESMAP hosted its inaugural 2010 Knowledge Exchange Forum with a focus on Exploring Cutting-Edge Energy Solutions: ESMAP Initiatives and Partnerships. The full day event highlighted the innovative approaches the task teams and clients are pursuing under the ESMAP 2008-2013 Strategic Business Plan. This event preceded the annual Consultative Group meeting for Energy Trust Funded Programs of ESMAP and Asia Sustainable and Alternative Energy Program- ASTAE. After its inaugural success, it was agreed to become an annual showcase for donors, clients and partners to share lessons learned, provide updates on the ESMAP program and activities, and serve as a knowledge update before the annual donor meeting.
ESMAP's Program Manager, Amarquaye "Kwei" Armar, opened the day with a snapshot of ESMAP’s initiatives and partnerships that served as the roadmap for the day’s events.
Initiatives
ESMAP’s Renewable Energy Market Transformation Initiative, REMTI, invited Vince Perez, Former Ministry of Energy for the Philippines and currently serving on the National Renewable Energy Board in the Philippines to present and provide a client perspective on the prospects and challenges of the Philippine Renewable Power Sector. ESMAP’s REMTI program was highlighted with a focus on activities that are taking place in the East Asia and Pacific region. ESMAP’s Energy Efficient Cities Initiative, EECI, highlighted the collaborative efforts underway with the energy efficient agenda in selected cities. Abdel Mughni Nofal, Director General from the West Bank Municipal Development and Lending Fund, discussed ESMAP’s pilot initiative in Palestine that is supporting municipalities in becoming more energy efficient.
Partnerships
ESMAP continues to play a critical role in building bridges between clients, counterparts and development organizations to facilitate partnerships that will deliver results to the poor. ESMAP is collaborating with Cities Alliance to pilot a program on Energy Access for the Urban Poor, which will bring the expertise in the urban and energy sectors together to address the critical challenges of energy and urban poverty. Dr. Rudith King, a Senior Researcher for CSS-KNUST in Ghana, described the experiences in Ghana on energy access and productive uses for slum dwellers. ESMAP is exploring partnership opportunities with the Dutch-German “Energizing Development” (EnDev) program, which is administered by GTZ. Dr. Marlis Kees, a Household Energy Specialist from GTZ presented EnDev’s lessons learnt from energizing development with a focus on household energy.
World Bank’s Energy Strategy
During the knowledge exchange event, a World Bank Energy Strategy Consultation was held, led by Jamal Saghir, Director ETW and Chair of the Energy and Mining Board, and Masami Kojima, Lead Energy Specialist and Task Team Leader for the Energy Strategy. An overview of the strategy and ESMAP’s funded background papers were presented. The challenge of the strategy formulation is to balance the twin objectives of energy access for poverty reduction and low carbon development for environmental sustainability. The team will continue consultations with key stakeholders and begin drafting the strategy in July 2010 with plans for a second round of consultation in the Fall for feedback and edits before presenting the strategy to the Board in early 2011.
ESMAP’s Expert Panel: Taking Recommendations Forward
At the closing session of the day, ESMAP reflected on the October 2010 Expert Panel that was convened to generate new thinking and independent insight on the interactions, interfaces and trade-offs between climate change (mitigation and adaptation) and energy access and energy supply objectives and thereby inject new thinking into ESMAP’s business planning process that not only challenges our current strategy, but is compelling and actionable. One of the panel’s recommendations is to focus on the new approaches of energy planning from the fast start for energy access to the more planned scenarios for climate smart development. To build on this agenda, ESMAP is teaming with the World Bank Global Expert Team on Climate Adaptation to bring in cross-sectoral expertise and build a program based on successful practices and piloting new approaches. Expert Panel members, Roberto Schaeffer, Alberto Troccoli and Mohammed Boulahya were invited to present on behalf of the panel and present their views as experts in the climate adaptation field.
The day closed with a renewed focus on the importance of knowledge sharing. As ESMAP continues to implement its Business Plan, the team will continue to engage with clients, colleagues and practitioners in knowledge exchange to showcase best practices, challenges and barriers in order to improve on the work ahead.
Link to 2010 ESMAP Knowledge Exchange Forum Presentations
Related Links
Related Documents
Contact: Vanessa Lopes