The African Energy Commission (AFREC) together with its partner Vito, through the Ministries of Energy in Malawi and Uganda hold technical stakeholder engagement meeting with government officials, statistics and energy utility agencies, as part of the implementation of the NDC support Centre project. The meeting in Malawi was held from 20-24 June, while the same took place on in Uganda on 27-30 September 2022.

During the same meeting, a subsequent training workshop was held to share insights and understand the two countries energy situation, identify data challenges and how best to address these challenges, to strengthen national statistics data collection and modelling for NDC communication purposes. The training sessions also aimed at enhancing knowledge of energy statistics through practical training, to work collectively to enhance energy data. Amongst others, it focused on the following key areas: the basics of energy data, commodity balances, toolkits for energy statistics and Energy data for Malawi and Uganda in general.

Speaking during the training, Mr. Thokozani Malunga, Assistant Director of Energy from the Ministry of Energy of Malawi emphasised that Malawi is eager to learn, to address the challenges faced by the country’s energy statistics. ‘‘We value the support from the partners who are supporting the NDC support Centre implementation to improve energy statistics, and we are confident that these efforts can help us to understand the countries energy balance, so that we able to conduct effective data modelling for our planning purposes’’, he highlighted.

While in Uganda, Mr. Maarten Pelgrims from VITO addressed participant saying ‘‘the general objective of this project is the establishment of an African Knowledge Center for National Determined Contributions, which will increase the capacities in four African countries for the proper preparation of climate communication and improved policy-making in the framework of commitments as set for the Paris Agreement. He then indicated that the work involves: improving energy statistics collection and reporting, enhancing long-term energy modelling in-country skills and alignment of energy data collection efforts with MRV frameworks for NDC reporting’’.

‘‘Uganda reaffirmed its commitment and the availability of participants who come from different sectors such as electricity, petroleum products, renewable energies, climate change, policy and planning, to work for the success of this project’’, said Dr Gerald Banaga-Baingi representing the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development of Uganda,
Stakeholders in both countries also underlined the importance of quality energy statistics as key cross-cutting and backbone components for policy decision and programme development. They highlighted the significance of setting in place modalities for institutionalising energy statistics at national level, to ensure all key sectors are involved in data collection, and that accessibility to all data is made easier to sectors of the government, for better planning, policy formulation, programme development and implementation.

Thirty (30) participants from Malawi and Twenty-one (21) from Uganda participated in the meeting.