The institutional body, composed by representatives of key organisations operating in the African, European and international energy sector, will support the Foundation in outlining its priorities

Rome, 23rd of May 2022 – Today, RES4Africa Foundation’s held the first meeting of its new Advisory Board, gathering high-level exponents from the most relevant international organizations operating in the renewable energy sector. The experts  will support the Foundation’s decision-making layers in their strategic decisions.

The new institutional body, that will be officially presented tomorrow on the occasion of RES4Africa’s 10th Anniversary,  will outline RES4Africa’s strategic priorities by providing relevant insights, identifying critical areas of intervention, and facilitating international engagement, while proposing wide-scoped initiatives in the renewable energy sector. It will also be a privileged context to shorten the gap between actors and decision-makers of the energy transition and RES4Africa’s daily operations.

During today’s gathering, the members of the Advisory Board have discussed their perspectives on the current and future landscape of Africa’s renewable energy, suggesting areas requiring a urgent intervention, and assessing RES4Africa’s potential impact and potential risks hampering its work. Finally, they synthetised the most significant lessons learnt emerged during the past decade of Africa’s energy transition, providing suggestion for the creation of effective partnerships, and identifying RES4Africa’s potential role in them.

The Advisory Board, that will be gathering twice per year, is composed by Ahmed Baroudi (Director General, SIE), Laura Cozzi (Chief Energy Modeller, IEA), Rabia Ferroukhi (Director, Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre, IRENA), Linda Munyengeterwa (Regional Industry Director, Infrastructure, Middle East & Africa, IFC), Ignacio Perez-Arriaga (Professor and Director of Energy Training, Florence School of Regulation), Maria Shaw-Barragan (Director of Lending in Africa, Caribbean, Pacific, Asia and Latin America, European Investment Bank), and Vera Songwe, (Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa). Additionally, two representatives of Africa’s youth were included in the Advisory Board, in order to reinforce RES4Africa’s commitment to involve Africa’s young generations in the energy transition: Ugochukwu Nwadiani (Youth Representative, Special Assistant to the CEO and UN SRSG – SEforALL), and Esther Wanza (Youth Representative, Co-founder, Raynow Energy – SDG7 Youth Constinuency).

“The creation of the Advisory Board is another relevant step forward, in the path of RES4Africa Foundation”, stated Roberto Vigotti, RES4Africa Secretary General “The energy transition urgently requires a wider transnational coordination, especially among the actors who are demonstrating the strongest commitment in the energy transition. With this new body, such an aspiration is transformed into concrete action, and we can’t wait to see it at work”. 

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