Parisa, South Santo Vanuatu, 2022 – The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in partnership with the Department of Energy of the Ministry of Climate Change is conducting community level trainings in selected Vanuatu communities under its project titled “Capacity Building to Strengthen Sustainable Implementation of Renewable Energy Technologies for Rural Energy Access”. The initiative is part of a 4-year regional project currently under implementation in the Melanesian countries: Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. The project is funded by the Republic of Korea through the Korea International Corporation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with GGGI and the Pacific Islands Development Forum (PIDF).

The project’s main objective is to strengthen informed and inclusive decision-making by resource owners and local government officials for integration of Green Economy (GE) and Renewable Energy (RE) into Local Level Planning and to Strengthen Implementation of Renewable energy (RE) infrastructure for Rural Electrification, taking into account gender and inclusive development. The project aims to train a total of 3000 people in all 4 countries, while also achieving 40% women and 20% vulnerable groups participation.

GGGI, having worked closely with local partners, has developed 10 training modules, complete with detailed trainer guides (TGs) as well as simplified local language translated Learner Workbooks (LWs) on topics such as: Green Economy General Principles, Green Business Basics, Energy Efficiency Basics, Inclusive Development, Renewable Energy General Principles, RE Financial Management, Solar in the Community, Solar Operations and Maintenance basics, Pico- Hydro in the Community and Pico- Hydro Operations and Maintenance basics.

Seven experienced local community trainers have undergone 2 weeks of training of trainers (ToT) workshop back in November 2021, out of which, four trainers will soon be mobilizing to the selected remote rural communities in Vanuatu to deliver the training.

Photo: Vanuatu Trainers at DoE conference room

The community training kick started this week in Parisa, South Santo. At the launch of the training workshop in Parisa on Sunday 29 May, the community chief welcomed the training team and expressed sincere gratitude to the Government of Vanuatu through the Department of Energy, GGGI and the trainers for choosing Parisa as one of their targeted training community. “As the chief of this community, we look forward to participating effectively at the workshop and gain the knowledge required for our community to go green” said Chief Michael Mura of Parisa, South Santo. Mr Jesse Benjamin, GGGI Senior Officer – Vanuatu was also given the opportunity to outline to the community the content of the workshop and why it is important to attend. The Area Administrator, Mr Tery Daniel re-emphasized the importance of such training to the community and encouraged the community to cease the opportunity to expand their knowledge and understanding on green economy and renewable energy. He thanked GGGI and the Department of Energy on behalf of the Sanma Provincial Government for taking the workshop to the Parisa community.

After finishing from Parisa, the training team will be moving to Nanuku (Malo), Melsisi (Pentecost) and Vinmavis and Tisman), aiming to complete all trainings by early August 2022. All the training modules will also be launched later this year and made publicly available on the online knowledge management platform developed under this project.

Photo credit: GGGI Vanuatu