Five African countries discussed common barriers and enabling conditions for the deployment of priority climate technologies at a regional Technology Needs Assessment (TNA) workshop.
The workshop gathered representatives from the five countries met in Toubab Dialaw, Senegal from 1–3 September. It brought together TNA coordinators and national consultants from Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. Organized by the UNEP Copenhagen Climate Centre and ENDA Energie, it is part of the fifth phase of the global TNA project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Overcoming barriers for climate technology deployment
The workshop focused on the second stage of the TNA process: Barrier Analysis and Enabling Frameworks (BAEF). Participants were introduced to the methodology for analyzing barriers affecting both market and non-market technologies, identifying measures to overcome them, and assessing the enabling conditions needed to accelerate technology deployment.
Through practical exercises, including problem trees and market mapping, participants identified common barriers and exchanged experiences from their respective national contexts. The discussions also highlighted potential synergies between countries, while helping the national teams further develop their shortlists of priority technologies.
From plans to finance
Topics discussed included electric mobility, smart irrigation, measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems, and technologies for industrial-scale applications. The agenda also included an interactive session on UNEP’s GEF-9 e-mobility programme, alongside a presentation from La Banque Agricole in Senegal and contributions from other national stakeholders.
This included a discussion on how to consider the finance dimensions during the initial BAEF phase facilitated by Adil Youssfi, TNA climate finance consultant for the Morocco TNA. Morocco is piloting an approach integrating the finance perspective in the beginning of the TNA process and onwards to the Technology Action Planning stage.
The final sessions focused on climate finance and on assessing and grouping the measures identified through the barrier analysis. The measures will contribute to the Technology Action Plans developed by each country through the TNA process, which provide practical roadmaps for implementing priority technologies and can help build pipelines of projects aligned with potential sources of public and private finance.
The workshop is the first of three regional capacity-building workshops for countries participating in TNA Phase V in Francophone Africa.
