SustainableEnergy actively influences all spheres of society to gradually adjust towards becoming fully sustainable where public involvement and initiatives are respected and democratic principles promoted.
Increasingly the climate change agenda influences the work of SustainableEnergy combining it with energy and resource management. A fundamental principle of SustainableEnergy’s work for a sustainable society in Denmark as well as abroad is that this cannot be achieved by only applying a set of appropriate technological innovations. The transformation towards societies based on renewable energy sources must be built around local democracy processes, deep rooted community ownership and a strong public participation.
Our points of departure when engaging with international development assistance are found within the environment and renewable energy sectors. Within these two sectors on-going climate changes and their impacts on already vulnerable communities and local authorities will form the back-drop of all programming and used as a leverage to work with local governance and democracy challenges.
SustainableEnergy is engaged in both rural and urban areas. Intervention in rural areas within for instance sustainable natural resource management cannot ignore increasing demands for fuel wood and charcoal from underprivileged populations in the cities. The continued fast growth of the urban population and following expanding environmental problems therefore indirectly impacts surrounding rural areas and livelihood opportunities there. In several of SustainableEnergy’s target areas placed in the proximity to urban centres rural farmland and its natural resources is under immense pressure.
The transformation towards societies based on renewable energy sources must be built around local democracy processes, deep rooted community ownership and a strong public participation.
Our points of departure when engaging with international development assistance are found within the environment and renewable energy sectors. Within these two sectors on-going climate changes and their impacts on already vulnerable communities and local authorities will form the back-drop of all programming and used as a leverage to work with local governance and democracy challenges.
SustainableEnergy is engaged in both rural and urban areas. Intervention in rural areas within for instance sustainable natural resource management cannot ignore increasing demands for fuel wood and charcoal from underprivileged populations in the cities. The continued fast growth of the urban population and following expanding environmental problems therefore indirectly impacts surrounding rural areas and livelihood opportunities there. In several of SustainableEnergy’s target areas placed in the proximity to urban centres rural farmland and its natural resources is under immense pressure.
Programmes
Our programme engagement spans from a hands-on approach with rural natural resource management committees in Mozambique to influencing national policy implementation around the Climate Change agenda in East Africa.
Partners
We collaborate with more than 30 partners in 5 countries. Our partners are chosen to represent a wide variety of skills and networks.
Approach
We believe in facilitating local and national civil society collaborations. Programmes are carried out through civil society organisations reaching out to both the private sector actors and government institutions.
On-going programmes and projects
How-to – from Kenya to Denmark: Engagement of Danish youth in global climate related issues
Start date: January 1, 2022
End date: January 1, 2024
Funded by: CISU, Engagementspuljen
Budget: DKK 881.000
How-to – from Kenya to Denmark: Engagement of Danish youth in global climate related issues
Inspired by young resourceful Kenyan entrepreneurs working with recycling and upcycling of second-hand products this project seeks to inform and engage Danish students at vocational pre-training centers in Denmark. The training centers target young people who are still looking for a suitable study or profession and are rarely very engaged in global issues. It is estimated that about a third of the Danish population has a limited knowledge and interest in global development issues. Reaching this group of people with relevant communication material becomes a special challenge.
A series of simple how-to videos introduce the students to several skilled and self-made Kenyan craftsmen. The ‘How to step-by-step videos’ facilitates the creation of a shared space between young people in Denmark and young Kenyans. The aim of the videos is that the simple craftmanship displayed, will be capable of inspiring the students at the vocational training center to either engage in something similar or result in new localized ideas. Whilst showing and working with the material in the videos it is also hoped that they will be capable of catalyzing a debate or reflection on similarities between hopes and aspirations of young green entrepreneurs across two different continents.
The videos are brought to the Danish classrooms along with supplementary educational material that consist of tangible step-by-step guides as well as background materials that provides the students with knowledge about the similarities and differences between Kenyan and Danish society.
Watch one of the step-by-step guides here.
Project documents:
Diana, a young Kenyan artist, makes a handbag using old tires.
Displaced pastoralist children in Endo Marakwet County, East
Start date: July 1, 2020
End date: July 1, 2023
Funded by: Danmarksindsamlingen
Budget: DKK mill. 1,7
Displaced pastoralist children in Endo Marakwet County, East
Nomads and farmers in the western part of Kenya have for decades been in dispute with each other over land and cattle issues. During the past decades the conflict has intensified and today armed cattle raids are common. Frequently the results are displaced families with the children paying the highest price.
The many weapons in circulation after the war in Sudan and the protracted civil war in Somalia have contributed to the escalation of the conflict. Climate change has resulted in less rainfall and desertification and has further reduced the fodder available for the cattle. Increasing competition over land available for grazing has further aggravated the on-going conflict.
Refugee children must be secured schooling
To escape from a dangerous environment, whole families or the children alone flee their homesteads and seek down to more peaceful areas south where they temporarily live with relatives or acquaintances. Children are often not offered schooling in the new area and therefore, the project will work for the children to be re-enrolled into school.
Dialogue and conflict management
The project effort is focused in Elgeyo Marakwet County, where it addresses conflict mediation to prevent and counteract the unrest. The aim is to facilitate a continued constructive dialogue between the parties involved in the conflict. This include representatives of the various ethnic groups, authorities and police.
The project is expected to have a positive impact on approximately 4.000 children.
Victoria Institute for Research on Environment and Development, (VIRED) is the partner responsible for the implementation of the project.
Project documents:
Displaced-pastoralist-children-in-Endo-Marakwet-County-East-Final.pdf
View of the project area
The Programmatic Communication Platform
Start date: January 1, 2020
End date: December 31, 2023
Funded by: CISU / Danida
Budget: Included in the Decentralisation and Climate Change programme
The Programmatic Communication Platform
In 2017 an aspiration to create an inspirational advocacy and communication linkages between the country components led to the creation of the “Programmatic Communication Platform”
The PCP is now a sustained facility anchored under the current programme with participants from seven organizations from the two sets of consortiums in Mozambique and Kenya. To add regional relevance 2 additional partners from Tanzania and Uganda were included in early 2018
Hence the platform consists of communication staff from SusWatch Kenya, Livaningo Mozambique, ADEL Sofala Mozambique, Osienala Kenya, Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, CREP Kenya, TaTEDO Tanzania, Umande Trust Kenya and SustainableEnergy Denmark.
The Programmatic Communication Platform is born out of a realization that working with communication on trans boundary issues like climate change and climate action provides a unique opportunity for CSOs to meet across borders to discuss effective ways and means to advocate for both local and global climate action.
The team meets physically once or twice a year and besides that, it holds regular online meetings to keep momentum. By these means, the platform seeks to follow its aim of strengthening each other and develop new innovative approaches to influence decision-makers to take climate action.
The Programmatic Communication Platform, of course, has its own web-page with its own media productions
The organisations taking part in the Programmatic Communication Platform are:
- ADEL Sofala
- Community Rehabilitation & Environmental Protection (CREP) Programme
- Livaningo
- OSIENALA (Friends of Lake Victoria)
- Suswatch Kenya
- Tanzania Traditional Energy Development Organization (TaTEDO)
- Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development (UCSD)
- Umande Trust
Project documents:
PCP team members at a meeting in Nairobi in January 2019