Validation of SWITCH Africa Green country implementation plans

Ghana

The Ghana SWITCH Africa Green National Technical Coordination Committee, in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for Project Services, organized a one-day validation workshop for SWITCH Africa Green stakeholders in Ghana on 21 July 2015, at the Orchid Hospitality Management Services Conference Room, Accra. The objective of the meeting was to validate the draft country implementation plan and hold a grant awards ceremony for the successful SWITCH Africa Green grant applicants. After introductions and preliminaries facilitated by the Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Felix Quansar, a consultant to the National Technical Coordination Committee, presented the country implementation plan for validation by the members. After deliberations, the members recommended that amendments and insertions proposed be addressed by the working committee. The NTCC members agreed to discuss the amended implementation plan in their next regular meeting.

Uganda

The Uganda SWITCH Africa Green National Technical Coordination Committee (NTCC), in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme, the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations Office for Project Services, organized a validation workshop for SWITCH Africa Green stakeholders, which was held in Uganda on 27 July 2015 at the Imperial Golf Hotel in Entebbe. The objective of the meeting was to validate the draft country implementation plan and hold the grant awards ceremony for the successful SWITCH Africa Green grant applicants. The meeting was a follow-up to an earlier NTCC meeting held at Hotel Protea, Kampala, on 7 and 8 July 2015.

The technical workshop began with welcoming remarks by Mr. Gerald Musoke Saula, Deputy Executive Director of the National Environment Management 

Authority. Dr. Madina Guloba, research fellow at the Economic Policy Research Centre, presented the draft country inception report and country implementation plan.

The country inception report and country implementation plan are aimed at outlining the scope and objectives of the SWITCH Africa Green programme in Uganda and defining the modalities and mechanisms for implementation, as well as identifying, engaging and mobilizing the project team and key stakeholders and actors.

The discussion after the presentation centred on the gaps in the two reports. The NTCC members agreed to form a small team to make the required amendments and to disseminate the report by the end of August 2015.

South Africa

The National Cleaner Production Centre of South Africa (NCPC-SA), in partnership with the Department of Environmental Affairs, hosted the validation workshop for the country inception report and country implementation plan. The meeting was held in the NCPC-SA training room on 9 November 2015. Participating were members of the National Technical Coordination Committee and stakeholders from the three priority sectors for South Africa, agriculture, manufacturing and integrated waste management.

After introductions and preliminaries facilitated by NCPC-SA, consultants from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research presented the country inception and country implementation plan reports to the stakeholders for their feedback and additional input. It was noted that not all the relevant policies and strategies in the priority sectors had been captured as required. Suggestions were made to improve the structure of the documents in order to maintain consistency and minimize the content on research and methodology. With respect to the way forward, it was agreed that the consultants would incorporate the comments and circulate the reports widely, including to the six South Africa SWITCH Africa Green grantees for their input on the policy support component, for the areas that had an impact on greening businesses in their specific areas. The country report on the outcomes of the policy support component of the programme would be finalized by the end of January 2016.