Launch of Renewable Energy and Green Economy Trainings for Remote Rural Communities in Solomon Islands

Honiara, Solomon Islands, September 2022 – The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) in partnership with the Department of Energy under the Ministry of Mines, Energy and Rural Electrification (MMERE) will be conducting community level trainings in six selected rural communities of Guadalcanal and Central Province 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 that includes 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 Infrastructure for Rural Electrification, considering gender and inclusive development.

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

Seven (7) experienced national trainers have undergone two (2) weeks of Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop, out of which, four (4) have been selected. Together with the country project coordinator, the team have now mobilized to the selected remote rural communities in Guadalcanal and Central Province to deliver the trainings.

The GGGI Project Manager, Mr. Mohammed Tazil recently travelled to Solomon Islands to meet with the project team. He provided a project status update to the Permanent Secretary of MMERE as well as to the Director of Energy and sought support for the upcoming main community trainings. A pre-mobilization training session was also held with the hired trainers to prepare the team for the upcoming main community trainings.

The project aims to train a total of 3000 people in all 4 countries, that is, 750 people per country, while also achieving 40% women and 20% vulnerable groups participation.

The project has already conducted pilot training in Visale, Guadalcanal in 2020. The main community training started off in Lambi on week starting September 12, before moving to Selwyn College, Barana, Tulagi, Bishop Koete and Guadalcanal Plains Palm Oil Ltd (GPPOL), completing training in all sites by end of October 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.