Establishment of an ECO Clean Energy Centre (CECECO)

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in partnership with sub-regional economic communities/organizations and their members states, has been developing the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC) for the past 10 years, an innovative partnership to accelerate the energy transition and mitigate the impacts of climate change in developing countries via the establishment of energy promotion centres. The GN-SEC now counts six operating centres (ECREEE in West Africa, EACREEE in East Africa, RCREEE in the MENA region, CCREEE in the Caribbean, PCREEE in the Pacific, and SACREEE in Southern Africa).   The Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is a regional intergovernmental organization encompassing diverse member countries from Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East, and South Asia. Among the overall objectives of ECO is the promotion of conditions for sustainable development in the ECO regions and intensification of natural resource mobilization, in particular energy resources.

UNIDO commissioned Econoler to work in close collaboration with ECO to establish the CECECO. To accomplish this mandate, Econoler and a team of local and regional experts developed national and regional baselines and performed needs assessments that informed the conduct of a feasibility study. Under the mandate, Econoler carried out the following tasks:

• Developed a regional and national baseline and needs assessments by: (1) analyzing the energy situation of target countries; (2) mapping policy and regulatory frameworks; (3) identifying EE/RE human resources, ongoing initiatives, as well as availability of EE/RE investment and market data; (4) performing a gender assessment of energy access and the clean energy workforce; (5) mapping the most important EE/RE private and public stakeholders and determining their priority needs in the EE/RE sector; and (6) performing a SWOT analysis of the current EE/RE regional support framework;
• Elaborated a feasibility study on CECECO by: (1) mapping the most effective institutional and technical design of the centre; (2) proposing a scope of mandate, strategic areas of intervention, key functions, as well as developing a result framework; (3) estimating the needs for administrative and staff resources and developing an indicative budget; and (4) developing a financial sustainability and fund mobilization strategy;
• Contributed to the regional consultative meeting by presenting the CECECO project document and help organize meetings.

  Establishing the CECECO was a key factor to achieve ECO region clean energy goals, including improving collaboration between ECO member states on EE/RE, fostering diverse and resilient energy architecture, promoting energy investments through EE/RE advocacy, and establishing an institutional advisory mechanism.