Understanding impact to drive clean energy for all

Last month the entire TEA platform came together in Nairobi for its annual Delivery Review Workshop. We experienced a week filled with project updates, reconnecting with TEA colleagues and discussing TEA’s future direction.

Throughout the sessions southern expertise and local knowledge remained an important part of the discussion, not just to enhance expertise in TEA target countries, but in particular because of its importance to keep delivering solutions that are locally relevant and lasting beyond the duration of the programme. Keeping local embeddedness central to delivery is thus key to the success of TEA.

There was also a shared recognition that skills development needs to reach across all stakeholder groups. From Research and Innovation stakeholders, local entrepreneurs and policymakers to programme implementers: the work of a just energy transition depends on capable people at every level of the system, and TEA has been actively contributing to create a pipeline of capable people across its delivery partners.

What stood out most for me was the appetite within TEA for a more integrated approach. As a programme, we realised that sometimes, the actors who need each other most are operating in separate lanes. The path forward is one where finance, policy (e.g. through FCDO country offices and politicians at multiple levels), technical expertise and community knowledge are more closely connected.

The workshops, the exchanges, and the relationships built in Nairobi give us good reason to keep going in the final year of TEA’s second phase. We look forward to continuing this work together with our wonderful partners across the globe.

– Written by Jiska de Groot