Training of Trainers on Energy Statistics 8th – 12th December 2019, Cairo
Spreading knowledge on energy statistics and energy planning is key in boosting investments in renewable energy and promote the creation of jobs in the renewable energy sector. Therefore, 20 energy experts from all regions in Africa met between the 8th and 12th of December in Cairo (Egypt), to elaborate jointly on energy statistics and energy planning in a “training of trainers”. The “training of trainers” is an important quarterly held networking and knowledge sharing event for energy experts in the African partner countries.
High quality data for energy statistics sets the foundation for energy planning and boosts investments in energy and, therefore, creates jobs. Capacitating regional trainers on energy statistics is key for achieving this goal. Therefore, the African Energy Commission (AFREC) selected 20 energy experts from all regions in Africa to recruit and capacitate them as national focal points and regional trainers on energy statistics. The “training of trainers” was jointly organised by AFREC, the African Union Commission (AUC), the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP). The main aim of these comprehensive continental training workshops is the training of future trainers of the African Energy Information System (AEIS), who pass on their knowledge to their colleagues in the partner countries. The training’s expected outputs included inter alia energy data collection to be more efficient, sustainable and of high quality and the validation of collected energy data to be more robust and of high standard.
The African Energy Commission (AFREC) was launched in February 2008 in Algiers with the aim of ensuring, coordinating and harmonizing the protection, conservation, development, rational exploitation, commercialization and integration of energy resources on the African continent. As of 2012 AFREC has been organizing annually, regional training workshops to train the National Focal Points of the Ministries responsible for energy statistic and energy efficiency.
The workshop, spread over four days, was divided into thematical blocks. While in the first two days the focus lied on topics, such as the need for energy data, the data selection and engagement of energy data at a national level, practical and feedback sessions about energy statistics and international recommendations and a discussion on national energy data collection in the industrial and residential sectors, the second part of the workshop entailed presentations and feedback by trainees, discussions and exercises concerning data quality, verification and dissemination. The training was then closed on the 12th of December, the last day, with closing remarks and the awarding of the certificates.
Moreover, the training was co-funded by the European Union and Germany.
