Impact

Policy and Standards Development

  • In a major step to prevent the countries in the East and Southern African region from being flooded by inefficient, low-quality lighting products, Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) for lighting products was adopted by the respective standards bodies in SADC in April 2021 (SADC), and in December 2022 (EAC). The adoption of the MEPS also contributes significantly to strengthening regional and inter-regional trade and accelerating the energy and climate transition. The MEPS for lighting have already been adopted at national level by Eswatini, Namibia and Rwanda, with initiatives for national adoption under way in various other EAC and SADC countries. The development of regional MEPS for cooling (jointly with E4A) has reached an advanced stage 

  • Regional Technical Committees were established, and a regional framework, strategy and action plan have been developed to assist EAC and SADC member countries in the implementation of EELA standards and policies. Additionally, the EELA project is presenting national stakeholder workshops in member states to assist them in the implementation and enforcement of the MEPS.

  • The project is also supporting the development of a regional energy policy for the EAC region. 

Capacity Strenghtening

  • The EELA e-learning platform (https://training.eela-project.org) with its holistic set of capacity building activities was established as a mechanism to facilitate building critical EELA-related capacity in the region. The first two modules (Introduction to EELA, and Lighting) are open to all stakeholders, and modules 3, 4 and 5 (on Cooling, Productive use of energy, and Market development) are currently under development. The platform will also be used for guided training of Change Agents to assist in accelerating the transition to energy efficient lighting and appliances, in collaboration with Kafue Gorge Regional Training Centre (KGRTC).
  • Regional reference laboratories in Zambia, Uganda and Mozambique were strengthened through training and the procurement of equipment to test lighting products and support regional market compliance. In addition, portable lighting test equipment was purchased for each of the 21 member states to facilitate market surveillance and conformity checks. 
  • Three market studies and supply chain analyses were carried out, namely on lighting, cooling (in collaboration with UNEP), and productive use equipment (PUE). The PUE study highlighted the need for an EELA off-grid PUE component. 

Business support and Market development

  • A private sector strategy was developed for the EAC and SADC region, followed by the launch of the EELA Technical Assistance and Co-financing Facility (https://eela-project.org/private-sector). The first eight projects have already been selected for support through a call for expressions of interest, many of them the first Energy Service business models in their respective countries. For co-financing, they are Green Impact Technologies, Icopower Kenya Ltd, Zuwa Energy Ltd (Malawi), ERE Ltd (Rwanda), STOP Ltd (Rwanda) and AG Energies. The Facility is also providing technical assistance to  St. Francis Referral Hospital, and Lugala Lutheran Hospital. 
  • In addition, a number of holistic information sessions were presented to raise awareness of the business opportunities.