ABOUT

The TEA-LP is a partnership of African universities committed to delivering professional African graduates ready to drive the continent’s transition to sustainable energy access for all.

Our Partner Universities are committed to developing, implementing and evolving new first-of-its-kind postgraduate curricula in Africa, offering students the opportunity to develop skills and expertise sorely needed to advance Africa’s sustainable energy transition.

The TEA-LP Team supports our partners through workshops, webinars dedicated guidance on curriculum development, course planning, marketing and accreditation.

We also have a Scholarship programme, in partnership with and generously supported by the Liechtenstein Institute for Sustainable Development, to enable students to access and enrol in the new programmes.

TEA-LP is part of the Transforming Energy Access programme, a research and innovation platform supporting the technologies, business models and skills needed to enable an inclusive clean energy transition.

The TEA-LP is hosted by the African Climate and Development Institute at the University of Cape Town.

The ACDI is UCT’s collective response to the challenge of climate change in the context of sustainable development in Africa. It is an inter- and transdisciplinary research and training institute co-generating new evidence and innovations to solve Africa’s climate and development challenges.

OUR FUNDERS AND SUPPORTERS

The TEA-LP is one of 8 projects funded by UK Aid under the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) programme. For more information on the TEA and the other projects being supported, visit the Carbon Trust website.

UCT TEAM

Leslie Ashburner

Leslie Ann Ashburner has a background in education and development. She obtained her MPhil in Climate Change and Sustainable Development at the University of Cape Town (UCT). At UCT, she has worked on several collaborative climate and energy curriculum projects across Africa including the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) and the PAUWES curriculum projects. Currently, she leads the Transforming Energy Access - Learning Partnership (TEA-LP) with specific focus on supporting new universities in the partnership with innovations in curricula at Masters’ level.

Jiska De Groot

Dr Jiska de Groot is a climate and development researcher and practitioner with over 12 years’ experience working in the climate change, energy access and development space. Jiska holds a PhD in human geography, an MSc in International Development Studies and a MA in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. As a senior researcher at the University of Cape Town, she has led research and capacity building programmes that engaged 23 African countries with climate-friendly technologies and practices for energy access. Now, in her role as Network Coordinator for the TEA Learning Partnership, she is focused on improving Southern visibility in the energy access sector, through expansion of the TEA LP networking function for universities, students, and other relevant stakeholders, whilst maintaining a capacity building focus.

Mascha Moorlach

Mascha Moorlach has a degree in Architecture, Building and Planning from the Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands. She has been working at the University of Cape Town as a researcher since 2006. She has been working in the energy sector from a variety of perspectives. She has been involved from an engineering perspective, as a certified measurement and verification specialist for energy efficiency projects in support of the local demand side management. She has furthermore been involved in knowledge building on the impacts of engineering on the social and natural environment particular in undergraduate curriculum, as well as a capacity building through the Transforming Energy Access project which supports Universities with curriculum design and development of CPD courses.

Whitney Pailman

Whitney Pailman is a PhD Candidate in Energy and Development at the University of Cape Town, with her dissertation on Integrated Business and Partnership Models for Energy Access in Sub-Saharan Africa. She combines research and project experience in off-grid energy access business models, innovation in off-grid solar and storage technologies, energy education and the gender-energy nexus in Sub-Saharan Africa. She holds a Masters degree in Energy and Development from the University of Cape Town and a Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Johannesburg. She served as a Research Fellow for the TEA-LP supporting gender mainstreaming in Masters programmes, and currently supports the expansion of the networking function to enhance the visibility of the Southern network.

Nomanesi Makhonco

Nomanesi Makhonco is natural scientist, who obtained her MSc in Environmental and water science at the University of the Western Cape. Her master’s in science degree focused on highlighting the importance of non-perennial rivers. In her role as research assistant at the African climate and Development Initiative (ACDI) she has done research work in alien tree mapping, clean cooking policies in Africa, community energy access, Technology Needs Assessment for climate change, transformative learning for sustainable development. She has expertise in remote sensing, data collection, capturing and analysis. Her role in the TEA-LP includes maintenance of the university database, reviewing of course resources and ongoing support for universities.