Contribution to the EU High-Level Conference on Regional Cooperation



Contract partner: UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization Country: Entwicklungsländer, unspezifisch Funding amount: € 50.000,00 Project start: 15.08.2018 End: 31.12.2018

Short Description:

Overall goal


The Conference aims to accelerate global efforts to strengthen regional cooperation and integration as a catalyst for scaling up renewable energy and energy efficiency investment, innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries.

Targeted regional cooperation can address some of the barriers for sustainable energy and climate technology markets more effectively and at lower costs than national efforts, create the urgently needed economies of scale and enable more equal progress and spill-over effects between countries.


Expected results


Expected outcomes of the Conference include:

• The Executive Directors of all operational Regional Sustainable Energy Centres within the GN-SEC, representing roughly 90 member countries and territories, presented their flagship activities and forged new partnerships with the international development community;

• Representatives of the regional centres in the preparatory and start-up phases (REEECH, SICREEE, ECEC) raised awareness on their emergence;

• A technical Background Report on regional sustainable energy cooperation was discussed and finalised;

• A conference report with concrete findings and recommendations on how to further strengthen regional cooperation was distributed to the international development community;

• Partnerships on concrete programs between the regional sustainable energy centres and other partners as a follow-up were created;

• The Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC) as a platform was strengthened.

 


Target group / Beneficiaries


The Conference and its side events will bring together roughly 150 senior officials from EU Member States, selected key players from regional and international organisations, development banks, utilities and regulatory bodies, the private sector and academia from the global South and North.

 


Activities


The Conference will present case studies and lessons learned from the EU, EAC, ECOWAS, SADC, CARICOM, SPC, SICA and the Arab States, and highlight partnership opportunities with the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC). The potential contribution of regional cooperation to accelerate the implementation of the “Green People´s Energy for Africa Initiative” through enhanced entrepreneurship, civil society engagement and domestic financing will also be discussed. Finally, the Conference will highlight the catalytic role of regional programmes and organizations in implementing global efforts and objectives like the Sustainable Development Goals, the climate goals of the Paris Agreement or the SE4ALL initiative.

The Conference includes the organisation of a “Business Forum for African Start-Ups and Entrepreneurs in Sustainable Energy and Climate Technologies” in the framework of the “Green People´s Energy for Africa” Initiative and the side event “Creating opportunities for sustainable energy investments and businesses in developing countries”.

 


Context


Under the Austrian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Austrian Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs (MFA), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) are co-organizing the High-Level Conference on Sustainable Energy and Development. The Conference will take place on 3rd October 2018 under the guiding theme “Regional Cooperation to Accelerate Sustainable Energy Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries”. It is organized under the umbrella of the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC) and in conjunction with the Informal Meeting of the EU Directors General for Development Cooperation. The Conference will be accompanied by a series of thrilling energy events between 1st and 5th October 2018.

project number 2839-01/2018
source of funding OEZA
sector Energiegewinnung, -Verteilung und -Effizienz, allgemein
tied 0
modality Other technical assistance
marker Environment: 2, Climate change mitigation: 2, Climate change adaptation: 1, Gender: 1, Poverty: 1, Trade: 1, Disaster risk reduction: 1
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.