During the launch of the SETA project in Meru County, European Union Delegation, National energy authorities, and members of SETA project’s Team
Background
Kenya is the epicenter of Africa’s energy transition. The government has an ambitious development blueprint, Vision 2030, which aims to transform Kenya into a newly industrialized middle-income country, especially, to boost manufacturing and job creation. Vision 2030 recognizes energy as a key enabler of the socio-economic pillar, as the third national Medium Plan 2017-2022. Furthermore, the vision for the National Energy Policy 2018 is “affordable quality energy for all Kenyans”. Its objective is to ensure affordable, competitive, sustainable and reliable supply of energy at the least cost to achieve national development needs, while protecting and conserving environment.
Despite this legislative mandate, only 4 of the 47 counties have been able to develop energy plans. Various factors have been cited as reasons behind these shortcomings, including but not limited to: data inadequacies, such as insufficient or poor-quality data on levels of access and data on the energy needs of end users. Other challenges include technical capacity gaps within county governments and lack of adequate resources to develop energy plans.
It is with the above in mind that the Institutional Capacity Development to the Sustainable Energy Sector in Kenya project was born, (hereafter referred to as the Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance Project (“SETA”)).
The Sustainable Energy Technical Assistance Project
SETA is a three-years (2020-2023) EU funded project of the Ministry of Energy whose objective is to provide institutional capacity development support for the sustainable energy sector in Kenya. SETA was born in the wake of the Sustainable Energy for All Action Agenda and investment prospectus, and was conceived to contribute to its implementation in Kenya.
The purpose of the project is to provide institutional and other support to public and private stakeholders of the Kenyan energy sector in the identification, planning and implementation of renewable energy, energy access and energy efficiency projects.
This ground breaking initiative in Kenya is being implemented by IED, in partnership with Loughborough University, Practical Action Consulting (PAC), IIED and ACTS.
Key achievements to date
Basic Training Programme
A Basic Training Programme (BTP) targeting all 47 counties was undertaken in August and September, 2021. The BTP was an introductory package targeting the county energy departments and selected sectoral departments of all the 47 counties. It intended to build an understanding of the energy development benefits and the added value of inclusive and integrated planning approaches.
Through this programme, 235 county officials were trained on key enabling policies including: SE4All Action Agenda, Energy Act 2019, Gender Policy (2019), Kenya National Energy Efficiency and Conservation (2020), Bioenergy Strategy (2021) and the Integrated National Energy Planning (INEP) framework and regulations (draft). Furthermore, participants were trained on the types of data and data analysis tools needed to optimise and develop new county energy plans.
Advanced Training Programme
Currently, the project is at the Advanced Training Phase (ATP), where 12 of the 47 counties that underwent the Basic Training Phase have been selected for support.
The ATP aims at building more in-depth knowledge in the participant counties on inclusive and integrated planning approaches. Furthermore, the ATP shall provide more hands-on technical support in the preparation of investment ready and implementable County Energy Plans.
Other key achievements
SETA has supported the Ministry of Energy in building capacity for policy and strategy implementation. Currently SETA has supported with the implementation of the bioenergy, energy efficiency and clean cooking strategies. SETA has also made significant strides in the implementation of the gender policy.
County participants being trained on the Gender Policy, 2019 in Muranga County
Furthermore, through the project, discussions around developing a better data access and governance framework have begun with the hopes shifting the course of data governance in the Kenyan energy sector.
SETA has targeted its efforts to building and bettering the Private Sector and Civil Society Organization interactions and engagements with the public energy sector, including Ministries and State Agencies.
Look out for more updates on the SETA project on our website!
Travel in the countries of IED intervention, although still relatively reduced by certain restrictions related to Covid-19, has nevertheless generated the emission of 74 Tons of CO2 for the year 2021.
