Welcome to our first bi-annual newsletter! In this publication we will bring you lots of brilliant news and updates from the African Energy Commission (AFREC) and our joint work with our partners, to celebrate and recognise the effort we employ for the sake of our continent in our pursuit to transform the African energy sector.

This issue includes news of projects we are implementing in the members states, ranging from the development of the African energy Information System (AEIS), and the launch of national Determinant Contribution (NDC) support centres. These are exciting projects, not only for AFREC but specifically for member states on data strengthening at national, regional and continental level, a key component for energy policy and programme development.

The team here at AFREC work really hard to ensure that we can shine a spotlight on the outstanding, capacity development of the youth on our continent, and that is why we are so thrilled of the skills we are imparting to the young professionals, the African Union Youth Volunteer Corps (AUYVC) who joined our team to implement Africa’s agenda on energy.

AFREC is also growing from strengthen to strength and in the past year, exciting plans in development of impactful work are lined up and coming to fruition, however, so much still have to be done, so watch the space for more updates on that!

You will further recite about what member states and stakeholders discussed at the just ended COP26 in Glasgow, UK, and what they contemplate about how Africa should implement its energy transition programme in alignment with climate change. AFREC mandate is central to this goal. Likewise, you will also find useful information on the famous biomass usage in Africa, and how AFREC is working towards managing bioenergy data to transform the sector.

And we also couldn’t do what we do without the support of all our stakeholders reading this bulletin and the contributions from our stakeholders, so thanks so much for that too.

For me, and all our team, including our hugely supportive member states, National Focal Points, it is a pleasure to do what we do, to ensure that the hard work and commitment of our work is recognised, acknowledged, respected and rewarded, and to see the increasing support for our work makes it all worthwhile. We look forward to sharing you our work in 2022, so do please enjoy this first edition of our newsletter!

Enjoy the Festive Holidays!!

Ndahafa Nakwafila (Ms.)