East African Civil Society for Sustainable Energy & Climate Action (EASE&CA)
Donors
Partners
Start date:
July 1, 2019
End date:
March 31, 2023
Progress
Summary
The overall objective of this project is increased access to sustainable energy and other climate solutions to local communities in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania with both women’s and men’s full and effective participation and leadership for improved livelihoods and reduction of poverty.
Objectives
Immediate objective 1: local activities in 3 districts in Uganda
Empower poor, rural communities in three districts in Uganda, and in East Africa more generally, to get access to clean energy and improved livelihoods in an economic and climate friendly way, as well as to refine methods from previous projects to realise this.
Immediate objective 2: national level
Strengthen national CSO networking and advocacy for increased targets and financing of local, sustainable, pro-poor, and gender responsive climate and energy solutions in national development strategies and their implementation in Kenya, Tanzania, and
Uganda. The strategies shall include Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Long-term low Emission Development Strategies (LEDS) to the Paris Agreement, as well as national activities to implement SDG7 (clean energy), including the Sustainable Energy for All strategies.
Immediate objective 3: International level advocacy
Strengthen networking and participation of East African CSOs for exchange
of experiences and to give voice to East African CSOs to influence development of the international framework for the national strategies and for climate financing, including in the UN Climate Convention (UNFCCC).
Catalogue: 80+ Local Sustainable Solutions in East Africa
As part of EASE-CA, JEEP, together with its partners, published an extensive catalogue detailing various local sustainable solutions:
The headquarter staff together with the project coordinator NFRE; Lene Hogh and Tonny Brink conducted a follow-up in Nakaseke and Nebbi district. The follow-up was to introduce the most significant change storybook entitled “The road to energy independence” and the catalogue for local solutions to the project beneficiaries.
Specifically, the follow-up was to assess the progress, achievement made and challenges faced during project implementation. During the follow-up advice on how to continue with the project activities was given to the beneficiaries and most significant change stories collected. Forexample; Friends for Nature Tree Nursery attendant was advised by Lene to collect seeds instead of buying and to keep advertising all seedlings in the nursery.
The head teacher Kasagga Church of Uganda primary school, Emmanuel Kizza thanked JEEP and team from Denmark for the good work they do more so constructing an energy saving stove that has helped them save money for firewood and use it to pay extra teachers to teach the pupils. He also said the smoke-free environment has enabled the cook work with her child.
Enhancement of capacity of local communities in establishment and management of green enterprises through capacity building trainings in entrepreneurship skills, financial literacy was conducted under the EASE-CA project. 141 TOTs (59 males and 82 females) were trained in income generating activities in Nakaseke district. This is purposed to improve people’s livelihoods as well as reduce their dependency on unregulated sources of energy for livelihoods such as charcoal burning, deforestaion.
Increasing access to tree seedling at subsidized price with a main purpose of increasing tree coverage in the area for fuel wood, fruit, income and employment opportunity through empowering communities with skills in establishment and management of tree nurseries. 6 tree nurseries were established in Nakaseke, Nakasongola and Nebbi ditrict.
In Uganda, JEEP & UCSD conducted a customised social media training for student volunteers (youth and coalition members) where they showcased sustainable energy and climate solutions and their potentials to address climate change problems and increasing energy scarcity through local action.
The training workshop aimed to support the objectives of the EASE-CA project within the context of 2021 as a Covid19 post recovery year ahead of the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, on 17-30 May 2021; and the UNFCCC COP26 in Glasgow (UK) due to take place on 1 – 12 November 2021 among other global efforts to reverse loss of biodiversity and raise ambition on climate action. Specifically, the training was to introduce the Catalogue of Local Sustainable Solutions in East Africa to inspire participants to do their part to address the energy crisis, unsustainable practices and the climate emergency at their respective levels.
JEEP and UCSD believe that the Catalogue will be a key contribution to scale-up community actions as part of the needed global efforts (above). In addition, the ‘voice’ of communities, youths, activists students and other frontline actors, is key to contribute to these global efforts. In this regard, this training aimed at exploring social media platforms that can heighten community voice through use of social media for information sharing (Facebook), contributing to discussions in local, national and global sustainable development processes (twitter and Facebook) to inform and influence decisions, as well as social networking (for example through sharing action-oriented pictures and short videos to influence friends and likeminded people in use of local sustainable solutions.
JEEP and its partners launched a detailed local-solutions catalogue, detailing various energy-efficient and local-oriented sustainable solutions. The catalogue can be found further up, under “Catalogue”.
314 individuals (Trainers Of Trainers) equipped with skills in construction and maintenance of fireless basket cookers as one of the alternative sustainable clean cooking technology to address the poor cooking methods in Nakaseke, Nakasongola and Nebbi district. These included 226 females and 88 males.
