Monday, July 20, 2015

Discussion | Integration of STI in National Development

Join the Discussion on how to integrate #STI in National Development on http://www.uncst.go.ug/discussion-forum.html. You can also share your thoughts on the UNCST Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/UNCST or Twitter @UNCST_Uganda.

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

The Energy Sector in Uganda, Experiences of a Fellow!

I have worked in the Energy Sector for over 10 years, which includes the time I was based at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development Headquarters from July 2004 to December 2009, where I was the Coordination Manager for the Energy for Rural Transformation Phase I; a World Bank funded multi-sectoral, rural energy and ICT investment programme.
 
While in the ministry, I was one of the key players behind the Renewable Energy Policy of Uganda 2007. Its main objective was to promote the use of modern renewable energy, through both public and private sector investment and sets of targets of 61% to use modern renewable energy by 2017. With respect to mini hydro-power development, the policy provided a feed-in tariff for project sponsors and a standard power purchase agreement, which significantly reduces the time for project financial closure. As a result there have been investments of over 200 MW in mini hydro-power since the policy was launched.  In this policy, it was also proposed to elevate the Energy Resources Department into a Directorate of Energy Resources Development and to promote the decentralization in energy planning and implementation through the existing decentralization structures of Government, in order to match its large mandate of promoting the sustainable utilization of energy resources. The policy also promoted capacity building and research. Subsequently, Makerere University developed an MSc in Renewable Energy and I was invited to teach the module Energy Policy and Planning, which I have presented for the last 7 years.
 
In early 2010, I was privileged to be commissioned by GIZ, to prepare a framework for decentralized energy planning and implementation. Later in that year, I worked on the reorganization of the Energy Resources Department into a directorate, again through GIZ/MEMD with Prof. John Munene of Makerere University Business School. This study provided the structure and job descriptions for the various positions in the new directorate and for the districts. It is very pleasing to note that this study was approved by the Ministry of Public Service and has now been implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development this financial year.
 
I later worked as Team Leader on developing National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) against climate change for Agriculture, Energy, Transport and Waste sectors, under the UNDP Low Emissions Capacity Building Project. For the energy sector, the two proposals were: i) the promotion of institutional stoves for educational institutions and ii) the promotion of vehicle fuel efficiency. 
 
The response of MEMD to the DRUSSA Fellow
When the first seminar was conducted, the enthusiasm was high based on the number of questions asked and the useful comments provided. This level of response demonstrated their appreciation of evidence based research. Emanating from this workshop was the recommendation to develop the new policy on the lines of the Departments in the Directorate namely; Power Generation, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In this respect, I will continue to engage with the Departments to identify key issues and reflect on available and relevant case studies.
 
This lively response could be because MEMD has grown significantly in staff and in particular the Energy Resources Department, where a number of project interventions have been initiated. Thus there are more young well educated professionals who include engineers, environmentalists, economists and sociologists. Furthermore, some of those who attended the seminar had participated in the DRUSSA workshop on policy planning and development held in Jinja and their skills had already noticeably been sharpened.
 
The impact of the DRUSSA Fellowship on the Scholar
The DRUSSA fellowship has enabled me to acquire new knowledge and information more readily, about what is happening in MEMD and the Energy Sector at large.  As such I am better informed and thus able to provide more relevant and current examples as I lecture, especially in the MSc Renewable Energy module on Energy Policy and Planning. These include; climate change mitigation (NAMAs), the biomass energy strategy, the new rural electrification strategy and plan, renewable energy, energy efficiency and power generation initiatives and sector performance reports. I can also identify research areas that are relevant and can contribute to new policy directions in the sector.

Eng. Dr Albert Rugumayo is the DRUSSA Fellow at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development

Value Addtion in Agriculture, Experiences of a Fellow

I am interested in value addition for agricultural products. I am a scientist and I have been working on agribusiness, policy development and statistics. I am developing a data base for value addition technologies that are available within the country.

So far we have collected 30 technologies, most of which are available within the Ministry, which gets them from practitioners. My job is to look for them. Some are published in the media, others I get from interactions with professors and other academia.

The biggest issue for me is that we get data, scientific evidence that the technology works. We shall get the high impact ones, process them and then dialogue with different implementers. In the end we are looking at how to improve livelihoods through agriculture using technologies.

Once the technologies are well synthesised they will be extended to the beneficiaries. We hope to organise a dissemination workshop and invite stakeholders to look at areas that can be recommended for use by different stakeholders. We shall give the best recommendations for using these technologies; some of them reduce costs, others extend the shelf life of a product and some aim at increased agricultural production.

The database that will be created will be cross cutting, with information about livestock, crops and fisheries. It will be like a one-stop shop for farmers looking for technologies, for investors to get the best returns of their money and policy makers will be looking at ways of increasing the benefits from technologies.

Packaging these technologies takes time and we need to learn a lot from people who have been in the system. We hope by the end of 6 months we shall have something. I have to look at the technologies and policies and present them in a simple ways to stakeholders.

One thing that the DRUSSA fellowship has helped me do is to refocus my thinking. I now look at simple details that can make a big difference. I have talked to people within the ministry so that we are able to generate data for purposes of planning and policy development.

It is fun to do this kind of work although most of the people may not understand it. Not everyone will know what you are doing until the final synthesised material comes out. But I like it.

Chrisostom Ayebazibwe is a DRUSSA fellow based at the Ministry of Agriculture