Technical Assistance to ECOWAS for the Implementation of the 11th EDF Energy Governance Programme in West Africa (AGoSE-AO) ECOWAS Region

Description

Since April 2018, NTU International A/S is implementing the EU project 11th EDF Energy Governance Programme in West Africa (AGoSE-AO) in support of ECOWAS. The TA aim is to contribute to poverty alleviation through increased regional integration in the energy sector in West Africa.

The main areas in the energy sector supported by the AgoSE-AO Programme:

Improving policy and strategy frameworks and regional planning, where main beneficiaries are ECOWAS and WAPP;
Harmonizing legislative, institutional, and regulatory frameworks in order to promote investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and access to modern energy; where main beneficiaries are ECOWAS, ECREE, ERERA, and WAPP;
Developing the regional electricity market by promoting renewable energy in the energy mix, where main beneficiaries are WAEMU, ECREEE, and WAPP;
Building the capacity of stakeholders to fulfil their roles, where all of the institutions will be supported under the technical assistance to target institution.

The specific objective of the TA executed by NTU is to provide support to the regional institutions (ECOWAS, UEMOA, ECREEE WAPP, ERERA) in line with their Capacity Strengthening needs, in the implementation of activities related to the Energy Sector Governance in West Africa support programme (AGoSE-AO).

The partner countries comprise 15 ECOWAS Member States, namely Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.

Context

To improve people's access to modern, sustainable, reliable, and affordable energy and to get out of energy poverty, West African states have opted for the pooling of resources, mobilized through the establishment of a regional electricity market. This vision resulted in the creation of the West African power exchange system as early as 1999, the adoption of the common energy policy (CEP) of WAEMU in December 2001, the adoption of the Energy Protocol in 2003, and the adoption of the ECOWAS and WAEMU White Paper for a Regional Energy Policy (January 2006), which defines ambitious goals in terms of access to energy. This process continued with the operationalization of specialized regional agencies, namely the West African Power Pool (WAPP), the ECOWAS Regional Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERERA), the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE), and the West African Gas Pipeline Authority (WAGPA).

In order to implement the regional RE and EE policies and the SE4ALL Initiative in West Africa, ECREEE has developed a regional framework for the development, implementation, and monitoring of National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs), National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPSs), and SE4ALL Action Agendas. Comprehensive action plan templates were developed and applied by ECOWAS countries. ECOWAS National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs) set out estimated energy consumption, planned energy efficiency measures, and the improvements individual ECOWAS countries expect to achieve.

In response to the objectives and barriers identified above, a variety of donors have formulated their programmes to support the development of RE and EE in the ECOWAS region.

The European Commission has adopted the Regional Indicative Program for West Africa, for 2014-2020, where the priority areas were:

Peace, security and Regional stability,
Regional Economic Integration, Aid for Trade,
Resilience, food and nutrition security, and natural resources as well as specific interventions outside these areas.

Within this framework, the Energy Sector Governance in West Africa Support Programme (AgoSE-AO) has been formulated.

The strategy and structure of ECOWAS energy

With the signing of the last addendum between NTU and ECOWAS, seven components have been designed to address the above-mentioned objectives and to bring meaningful results to the ECOWAS and WAEMU institutions.

These components are:

Component 1: Establishment of the Energy Policy, Strategy, and Planning Framework in the Region
Component 2: Harmonisation of the National Institutional, Legislative and Regulatory Frameworks, to Promote Investments in Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Universal Access to Modern Energy
Component 3: Further Development of the Regional Electricity Market, Promoting Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy in the Energy Mix
Component 4: Strengthening the Capacities of the Energy Stakeholders.
Component 5: ECOWAS Regional Electricity Policy
Component 6: Preparation and establishment of a study Facility
Component 7: Capacity Building of key stakeholders with regard to the regulatory framework of the ECOWAS Electricity Market

Components 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 are delivered by the means of the Technical Assistance axis, whereas Components 4 and 7 are delivered by the means of the Capacity Strengthening axis:

Horizontal Intervention Axis: TA - Technical Assistance includes:

Assessment of current situation;
Proposing actions;
Supporting their implementation.

Horizontal Intervention Axis: CS - Capacity Strengthening

Capacity strengthening activities such as mentoring, on-the-job training, and coaching;
Support to training, workshops, exchange and scholarship programmes, etc.

Governance and funding

The Regional Authorising Officer (RAO) of the European Development Fund (EDF) represented by the President of the ECOWAS Commission is the Contracting Authority. A Project Manager has been appointed from the staff of the RAO responsible for the issuance of the administrative notice for the start of the implementation of the contract and other duties having an administrative nature, with the formal authorization of the RAO.

The RAO is responsible for all administrative and procedural aspects of the contracting matters and financial management, including payments and approval of incidental expenditures, and is the only body entitled to give the official final approval of inception, interim reports, and final report following recommendations of the Steering Committee.

ECOWAS Commission, WAEMU Commission, ECREE, ERERA, and WAPP has appointed representatives for working with the NTU.

Collaboration

Other donors active in the energy sector in the ECOWAS region with whom there is a potential for collaboration include:

The Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which supports ECOWAS Commission since 2006. The aim of the programme is to strengthen the ECOWAS Commission in executing its core mandate, which is facilitating economic and political integration. GIZ assisted in the development of the Commission’s capacity to supervise, implement and monitor ECOWAS decisions.
EU-Africa Infrastructure Trust Fund (ITF) supported ECOWAS Electricity Regulation from 2009. The EU-AITF TA grant has been used by ERERA to implement its first regulatory activities: regional benchmarking of the electricity sector, assistance to OMVS (Senegal river basin commission) and OMVG (Gambia river basin commission) to improve cross-border exchanges, assistance to national regulators for setting international exchange tariffs, and settlement of disputes, among other activities. The grant has also funded part of the staffing costs and workshops, organized in the ECOWAS member states.
The Spanish Cooperation Agency (AECID) support for ECOWAS’s renewable energy policy aims at demonstrating the potential of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the region. Spain is one of the ECREEE’s key partners, with a direct contribution to its budget of 7 million euros (2011-2016).
The Australian Development Agency (ADA) together with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) is supporting the creation and expansion of regional centers for renewable energy. The aim is to equip regions with know-how in the field of sustainable energy. Its first regional center for renewable energy and energy efficiency opened in 2010 in West Africa.
USAID created a partnership with ECOWAS to align with the aims of the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future: supporting local countries to develop their own agriculture sectors to generate opportunities for economic growth and trade. USAID/WA supports the West African Power Program (WAPP) in their efforts to improve West Africa’s energy supply by assisting WAPP to coordinate and commission the construction of transmission lines, develop market rules, and build operational capacity to enable multi-country energy trading.
The WAPP Secretariat secured a USS21.5 million Grant from the World Bank supporting WAPP Interconnected Power Systems. The project was delivered by another group of Consultants and was expected to be completed by the end of December 2018. One of the most important assumptions underlying the Project is the full cooperation of electricity utilities to apply the Operations Manual. Which is also addressed by this TA project.