EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Energising the Millennium Development Goals – Setting the Enabling Environment (E-MINDSET) in Southern Africa E-MINDSET

EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Subcontractors and countries Project Partners Southern Centre for Energy and Environment - Zimbabwe Energy and Environmental Concerns for Zambia - Zambia Mulanje Mountain Conservation Trust - Malawi Project objective is to develop, test and adapt planning toolkits for linking energy planning and MDGs at local planning unit University of Twente

EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Background Main problem is that energy is left out in the planning process, contribute to low access to modern energy services by the poor communities. If no immediate redress is taken, MDGs may not be achieved. The action therefore sought to: Improve communities’ capacity to link energy planning and development Influence energy policy and regulatory framework to reflect and prioritise energy requirements for attaining MDG targets; and Disseminate tools for linking energy and MDGs empower communities with practical links between energy and development and they produced ward development plans which addressed energy issues for development of rural communities. Provide district councils with first hand information about community needs on energy, which information made it easier for service providers to better design facilities for rural communities.

EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Objectives and main steps Training of Project Sub Contractors on Energy and Development Planning Training of District level exension personnel Grassroots training Ward level Planning Energisation of Ward Plans Submission to District for Consolidation

EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Achieved Results To the communities the capacity building process was empowering and gave a platform for better appreciation of energy, visioning and demonstration of community empowerment. It gave an appreciation of the role of energy in development planning. Community Based Planning (CBP) helped to put energy into the communities’ development context. The experience with the CBP process in Mozambique made communities realise the resources that they had and made the service providers realise the need to provide for those needs. There was an improvement in resource allocation when communities became aware of the ‘many’ energy options available to them. This catalysed better responsiveness from service providers like the national utility in Mozambique, Electricidade de Mocambique (EdM) got first hand information about the capability and willingness of rural communities to pay for electricity. EdM then went and electrified households, schools and clinics. The project generated so much influence in government and NGO’s across the region. In Malawi this resulted in the formation of an independent institution to tackle energy issues at grassroots called Mulanje Renewable Energy Agency (MuREA). The energy organisation had been so influential and by the project end at least 11 districts outside the targeted ones wanted the planning process that was followed in Mulanje and Phalombe districts. There is also anecdotal evidence through public addresses and speeches of the following policy and decision makers: Chief Mpezeni, Ministry of Gender Malawi, and Ministry of Local Government Zimbabwe. The innovative and widely disseminated activities resulted in Practical Action being given a direct invitation to present the project on the annual Global Energy Awards event. Through talk shows at grassroots the project received direct enquiries from the public needing assistance to their energy challenges. Through E-discussions an energy discussion blog was created ( and has 80members contributing to it. In Malawi one of the network providers with more than 500,000 subscribers sent energy awareness messages and the feedback from the interested clients almost choked the network. The innovative energy project delivery model that has been demonstrated in the few selected wards and districts, Practical Action and its partners are of the opinion that it was not done to sufficient levels to enable the process to roll out on its own. Through monitoring and evaluation, experience with the project show that 9 out of the 25 wards had taken off by themselves. For a 3 year duration this represent an average uptake of 36%. On average there are 25 wards per district in the region and to sufficiently diffuse the planning model, this would require at least 9 years of action.

EIE/06/250/SI / January 2007 to December 2009 / 28 February 2010 Contact Details Tinashe Darlington Nhete /Practical Action Southern Africa / No. 4 Ludlow Road, Newlands, Harare, Zimbabwe Tel / Fax Joy Clancy / University of Twente, The Netherlands / / Tel / Fax Project website: