Rome, November 26th 2018
Due to the high volume of demonstrations of interest in in Open Africa Power 2019, the deadline for applications has been extended until November 30th. High profile African graduates wanting to enhance their technical, regulatory and business skills required to work in the private and public sector towards the electrification of Africa can still apply to join the program.
Open Africa Power 2019 residential module in Ethiopia will start on January 28 2019, and take place during a full week featuring a master class at the Institute of Technology of Addis Ababa University and lectures at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) compound in the Ethiopian capital, demonstrating commitment from local development organizations with this collaborative program.
Open Africa Power is an education venture aiming to forge a new generation of African leaders deeply engaged with their countries clean energy future. The program was initiated by Enel Foundation in 2018, in partnership with top Academic institutions such as Strathmore University from Kenya, the University of Addis Ababa from Ethiopia, and Italian institutions such as the Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, Bocconi University and Florence School of Regulation.
RES4AFRICA Secretary General, Roberto Vigotti, joined his voice to those praising the Open Africa Power initiative, which was also presented by Enel Foundation in the occasion of the RES4AFRICA Zambia Project launch. The event shed light on the current developments in Zambia's renewable energy sector, such as policy mechanisms to enhance sustainable and bankable projects, technological and technical issues on and off-grid applications, capacity building and socio-economic benefits to local economies from renewable energy projects.
Growing institutional support
After the announcement at the Italy-Africa conference in Rome, the institutional support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MFAIC) to OAP 2019 will include a special joint event during the African Module in Ethiopia, to which 60 participants from all over Africa are expected to attend. The program also recently received the endorsement of Sustainable Energy For All (SE4ALL), the UN initiative to promote energy access with a special interest in the African continent.
The latest UN agency to acknowledge and support the program is the Africa Center for Climate and Sustainable Development, within the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP-ACCSD).
Carlo Papa, Enel Foundation Director, commented, “we are honored that the African Center for Climate and Sustainable Development decided to support the program as we will benefit from the deep knowledge of UNDP at large”.