Technical Assistance to the GCCA Climate Support Facility
under the 10th EDF Intra-ACP Financial Framework
Work Order 4
Building capacity of the African Biofuel and Renewable Energy Company (ABREC) in
conducting feasibility & impact assessment studies and in developing communication
strategies to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy
Rapport de Mission – Composante « Communication Strategy »
Mission de terrain 14 au 26 Octobre 2012 à Lomé
Sofia Spirou
Quality control : Manuel Harchies
Consortium SAFEGE-Prospect-ADETEF-Eco – Gulledelle 92, 1200 Brussels, BELGIUM
Climate Support Facility – WO4 - Rapport de mission « Communication Strategy »
Summary of key achievements
As key achievement of the mission consensus was established on key aspects of
development of a communications strategy. Through the interviews with staff and Director
of ABREC as well as through the two day training workshop the main elements of a
communications strategy were agreed namely, main objectives, implementing strategies
and key result areas, as well as a set of result and activity based indicators to enable
monitoring and evaluation of the strategy. To enable implementation of the strategy a
budget as well as a workplan for the communications activities was successfully developed
and integrated into the ABREC workplan to be submitted for approval in the upcoming
Meeting of the General Assembly in November 2012. The training workshop also
successfully built relations between ABREC and key partners in development promoting
exchange and discussion in developing synergies in the field of communications. About 16
partners representing five organisations including the the Banque d’Investissement et de
Développement de la CEDEAO (BIDC), the National ElectricityCompany (CEET), Ministry of
the environment, Directorate of energy, as well as the UNDP participated in the workshop
for external partners.
Launching a new website for ABREC for better access to information and resources was
established by the Director of the organisation as a key aim of communications. Accordingly
assessment of the current website as well as needs and analysis for the development of the
new structure were undertaken as key tasks of the mission. A rough model website to serve
as a demonstration tool for the website redevelopment project was developed and
delivered to ABREC as part of the mission.
During the mission the staff of ABREC benefited from training sessions in communications
focusing on a learning-by-doing approach in specific tasks to facilitate implementation of the
communications strategy.
A strategy was built for communications of the project promoting installation of 1.000.000
bulbs in administrative and public buildings. However, through the budget building exercise
undertaken as part of the mission it emerged that there is currently no fund allocation
provided for this project. In light of this development the communications strategy was
developed in the understanding that it would not constitute part of communications at least
for the first phase of the new communications program.
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Climate Support Facility – WO4 - Rapport de mission « Communication Strategy »
Website
Developing a new improved website to raise visibility of the work of the organisation was
singled out as the key need of ABREC communications in the briefing meeting with Mr Tall,
Director General of ABREC at the beginning of the mission. The current website falls short of
its aim in providing access to information and resources to a level that reflects the nature of
work of the organisation. Moreover there is little information related to project activities of
the organisation, the navigation environment is not particularly friendly. Moreover the
existing website critically fails to integrate content management tools that can facilitate
content management to help increase renewal of the WebPages.
A new website, as described in the communication strategy can improve the telling of the
story of ABREC in offering access to more information, using messages that are simpler,
clearer and addressed to a wider range of target audiences. The navigation environment
can be more dynamic and attractive to audiences and new sections can be introduced to
help raise visit rates of the WebPages.
Crucially modern software to facilitate content management should be used to build the
new site. With modest financial and personnel support provided for communications it is of
strategic importance to allow easy maintenance of web content.
To ensure that resources of the website match needs of target audiences interviews with
ABREC’s key partners were undertaken including with representatives of the Banque
d’Investissement et de Développement de la CEDEAO (BIDC), the National Electricity
Company (CEET), Ministry of the Environment, Directorate of energy, as well as the UNDP.
Consensus was reached that enhancing project related information would be an important
deliverable in the upgrading of the website. Consensus was also reached that a section with
information on country energy profiles would also be a useful component to a new website.
To this end it was recommended that ABREC launches an effort to collaborate with the
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership REEEP to build on and reproduce
existing web resources through its new website.
From a communications point of view moreover it is important that the portfolio of projects
is mined continuously and used to mobilize investment resources. To critical audiences
representing potential partners for development of renewable energy projects in
organisations such as multilateral development agencies, regional development banks,
private sector institutions, state agencies it is important to provide information products
that are engaging and concise. As there are currently about 100 projects in the organisations
pipeline there is sharp need to develop such tools swiftly.
One of the main needs for capacity building that can support further growth in
communications is improving of project documents. As discussed with Mr Lambert during
the mission the reporting approach needs to adopt a clear structure serving to highlight key
information of projects, along the lines of a logical framework approach. Project documents
need to be strengthened in terms of capturing and bringing out information on objectives,
explaining the state of art in the context of the proposed activity, setting out the rational for
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Climate Support Facility – WO4 - Rapport de mission « Communication Strategy »
proposed actions, bringing out strong points in the proposed work, addressing risks and
setting a framework for monitoring and evaluation of project activity.
During the mission work was undertaken to propose a new structure for the website of
ABREC as well as develop a model of the new WebPages. To this end I worked closely with
the information officer to explore options regarding website building through use of open
ware software for content management such as drupal, joomla; explaining the benefits of a
content management system website, discussing options for training in website
development technologies involving content management systems.
Participatory building of a communication strategy
Following a series of interactions with ABREC staff and partners a workshop was launched as
basis for participatory development of the communications strategy. During the workshop
the main objectives of the strategy were designed, as well as key activities. To ensure
monitoring and evaluation of the strategy a set of activity and result indicators was designed
together with staff during the workshop to accompany the strategy.
As part of the new strategy an electronic newsletter of ABREC is planned is to be launched
on a monthly basis to build relations and disseminate information on the work of ABREC.
The electronic newsletter will help to serve as an information tool to organisations active in
the energy sector regarding developments in the domain of energies in West Africa.
A crucial success of the workshop was development and integration of a budget for
communications into the work plan of the organisation. As part of a cost benefit evaluation
some communication actions were prioritized and adopted as part of an immediate plan of
action while others were postponed to a later stage.
The final session of the two day workshop was addressed to ABREC partners and was
dedicated to exploring key issues in the communications strategy. Climate perceptions were
a main part of the discussion the aim of the exchange being to establish the state of the
climate change debate in the national context of Togo. Discussions revealed consensus over
the need to communicate and raise awareness of the issue of climate change to the broad
public while highlighting the link between energy efficiency and climate change benefits. At
the same time the need to recognize the importance of increased energy production to
meet development goals prompted participants to note that the campaign should be
organised around the key message that energy saving bulbs result in personal savings on
energy bills and create benefits of expanded energy supplies to society as a whole. While
messages featuring arguments relating to climate change should come lower in priority in
the campaign for low consumption bulbs.
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Climate Support Facility – WO4 - Rapport de mission « Communication Strategy »
Promotion of 1.000.000 low consumption bulbs in administrative and state buildings
A series of interviews were carried out to improve my understanding of the project in light
of insufficient clarity in the document concerning objectives, potential impacts and benefits
as well as risks involved. Through interviews as well as through exchange with Mr Yves
Lambert who provided valuable information regarding the project, I came to understand
that the project has a significant scope for realising energy savings that constitute a very
important advantage for communications.
Successful implementation of the project followed by increased adoption on energy saving
bulbs in the entire state sector could, according to calculations provided by ABREC, result in
savings of 19% compared to the total electricity consumed in Togo today. Moreover only
looking at the energy saved by the project itself a considerable result can be achieved.
Moreover through discussions on the appropriate choice of climate change messages in the
workshop I drew information from discussions with ABREC partners to design messages that
are in line with the context of climate change perceptions in Togo.
However, following consideration of various aspects of project implementation I also
realised that there are remaining risks not fully accounted for and addressed in the planning
of the project. From a communications point of view it is important to account for risks and
identify areas of possible failure to adopt consistent communications. Among areas where
greater clarification is needed in project operations include: i) defining the buildings to
implement the energy saving initiative. Given that state buildings work during office hours
when lighting needs are reduced energy savings realised through lighting may be at a lower
level than needed to prove project worthiness. However proving the potential of this project
by generating actual savings in the energy bills of the participating buildings is important
given the pilot nature of activities. Although I inquired I did not obtain any written note on
the choice of buildings nor is such as survey undertaken at this stage in my understanding ii)
Recycling is linked to the environmental and social responsibility due to the need for
adequate processes for disposal of mercury content of bulbs. However currently lack of
clarity in the recycling plans leave room for uncertainties in this sensitive area of project
work.
The most important barrier to launching the communications campaign for the project
currently however is the lack of financial support for communications. The only activity
envisaged for communications in the feasibility report is a press release or seminar for
project start (p57). During discussions with Director of ABREC I presented my view that a
communications plan should include adequate tools to ensure visibility to activities of the
project necessary to help it reach critical audiences including decision makers in favour of
adopting energy saving technologies across the public sector. The question of funds for
communications for this project therefore remains to be launched at a later stage.
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