Energy sector needs a “champion” – KITE

Frederick Asiamah

Energy is a need. Somehow, it has everything to do with all the other sectors. The environment is in trouble because of energy. Everything else, from the health of the ordinary man to the pesewa he can earn, all depend, in a very mysterious way, on energy.

There have been discussions about hydro, nuclear, solar, wind and oil & gas as sources of energy. Seldom does anyone mention biomass which includes wood fuel. The Kumasi Institute of Energy Technology and Environment is one organisation that seeks to address the issue of biomass. Its Director, Mrs. Harriette Amissah-Arthur, laments that the nation has not paid proper attention to biomass.

To her there is the need to regulate the biomass sub-sector, especially the production of charcoal. She believes that practically no one can stop Ghanaians from consuming wood fuel in the form of firewood or charcoal in the next decade or so despite the grave impact on our vegetation cover.

The first option to exercise is to communicate to producers and users emerging technologies. According to the Executive Director, “The technology that’s being used to produce charcoal today is the same one that was used may be in 1910 and therefore the efficiencies are about ten percent.” Thankfully, there are technologies today that allow us to use waste wood instead of primary wood…to produce charcoal. There are technologies today to allow us to grow… very fast growing trees … and harvest them in six months for your charcoal or firewood.

But why are we not making use of these options? The simple reason is that we lack champions in the energy sector. “And so we need champions who keep the focus and the attention and kind of create the linkages to make sure that things work for us,” says Mrs. Amissah-Arthur. She indicates that this is the role KITE seeks to play.

Profile

KITE, a “wholly Ghanaian non-profit-making development organisation” is a leading actor in the energy, technology and environment sectors in Ghana and the West Africa sub-region. It operates from two bases in Ghana – Accra and Kumasi – with operations extending to all ten regions of the country as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region.

KITE foresees a poverty-free Ghana and Africa. To catalyze the realisation of this vision, it has a mission to influence policy formulation and implementation in favour of sustainable development through research, capacity building, project development and implementation in the areas of energy, technology and environment. Its mission also allows it to strike partnerships with both national and international organisations.

The mission leads it to set this goal: “To promote the Effective Supply and Use of Renewable and Non-Renewable Energy Resources for enhanced Sustainability and Productivity to accelerate the achievement of the MDGs and steady Economic Growth.” And the goal in turn informs objectives such as to facilitate the deployment of sustainable energy systems and services for productive applications in rural and peri-urban areas; to demonstrate and support the targeted diffusion of new and emerging technologies in the national economy for accelerated development; and to promote enterprise-centred approaches as an option for energy service delivery and diffusion of modern technologies by indigenous entrepreneurs.

Key stakeholders

KITE counts five categories of stakeholders as very paramount. These it defines as Rural and peri-urban communities especially deprived and underserved populations in Ghana and the West African sub-region; policy and decision makers; energy and environment sector investors; donor agencies; and development actors and stakeholders. They also include the ordinary consumer of the various energy services.

Programmes

The organisation pursues programmes under five thematic areas. The Rural Energy Supply and Utilisation Program (RESUP) is the first programme area. RESUP focuses on sustainable production and utilization of energy, stressing the identification of alternative energy feedstock and improved conversion technologies. It has particular interest in unearthing new technologies from supply and using biomass more efficiently. KITE also has the Energy and Productivity Program (EPP), the Energy and Environment Program (EEP), the Clean Energy and Technology Investment Program (CETIP), and the Knowledge Management and Advocacy Program (KMAP).

Beyond these, KITE categorizes its services into four, namely: project development and management; policy research and impact assessment; energy enterprise development; and knowledge management advocacy. It has all these multi-sectoral services because in the words of the Director, “everything has something to with everything else!”

Funding

KITE appears very attractive for donors as evidenced by the support it has enjoyed from all the major donor agencies. Its donors include the DFID, UNDP, UNEP, G-RAP, JICA, USAID, European Union and the World Bank.

For the period January to December 2009, KITE has an amount of 169,000 US Dollars from the Ghana Research and Advocacy Programme (G-RAP) to pursue an oil & gas specific governance project. “This particular funding is for taking care of only the legislature,” explains Mrs. Amissah-Arthur. Specifically, the support is going to be used in building the capacities of legislators to enhance their oversight of the oil and gas sector. Also, the parliamentary press corp will benefit from the capacity building to ensure they placed in better stead to report on the sector.

According to her, the G-RAP support is being utilized under the thematic programme area five called the KMAP.

Challenges

But Mrs. Amissah-Arthur indicates that raising funds is not smooth. Unlike other non-governmental organisations that have parental likages abroad and get funding from there, “KITE is wholly Ghanaian owned NGO.” On the other hand, KITE has the advantage of independently pursuing projects along self-defined parameters. The challenge is always in being “more aggressive with your fund raising and identifying projects” that the donors wish to support. “It’s challenging but it is also very interesting,” says the Director.

Impacts/successes

Mrs. Amissah-Arthur sees impact and success differently. But “Success may be synonymous with impact if you defined clear goals with impact.” The biggest impact KITE has made has been being able to help retailers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to form an association. This subsequently led to regular dialogue with the Ministry of Energy, culminating in the ministry agreeing to offer the retailers incentives to transporting LPG to areas beyond Accra and Tema at the same retail price.

On other fronts, KITE worked with Ghana Telecom (now Vodafone) to set up e-care service centres in rural communities and enabled the use of solar panels to run the centres where electricity was not available. “Today there are 69 e-care centres owned by private entrepreneurs,” the Director said.

KITE has done 43 publications and undertaken 13 research studies. The research studies included a Study of Constraints and Opportunities for Energy Use in Peri-Urban Areas of Kumasi (1998-99), which focused on energy use patterns of Ghana’s indigenous small and medium enterprises; Energy Service Companies and Performance Contracting in Ghana (1998-99) which was an in-depth assessment and analysis of the performance of Energy Service Companies; and Environmental Implications of Power Sector Reform in Ghana (1997–99), which was a highlight of environmental issues resulting from Power Sector Reforms.

In 2001, KITE also studied the Implementations of Renewable Energy Technologies, Opportunities and Barriers: Ghana Country Study. This study assessed the opportunities and barriers to the development of renewable energy technologies in Ghana. In the same year, KITE undertook a research titled Biomass Energy: Review of Current Status to ascertain the status of Biomass Energy and its potential in Ghana. For the period 1999–2001, KITE also studied Energy Efficiency in Sawmills to assess energy utilisation in the timber industry to identify relevant technologies and processes for energy efficiency.

The list of research studies is endless. In other areas KITE executed 40 projects, established over 100 energy businesses directly, and organized more than 100 capacity building workshops. Furthermore, it has built the capacities of one million plus entrepreneurs and stakeholders, served two million plus people and impacted more than 100 communities. These impacts have attracted for KITE over 15 million dollars in development assistance.

Expectations

There is need for effective communication at all levels to link energy and development and the respective stakeholders so that everyone can contribute their quota. “Going forward is about KITE creating the linkages and keeping and making sure that those who need to do something do it,” Mrs. Amissah-Arthur concludes.