A Delegation of Econoler Experts Travels to Burkina Faso to Run a Workshop for the WAEMU-OIF Energy Efficiency Program

A delegation of Econoler experts travelled to Burkina Faso last week to facilitate a knowledge exchange and training workshop on energy efficiency in member states of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Pierre Baillargeon, vice-president and senior energy efficiency expert, along with four other energy efficiency experts (Louis Dorval-Douville, Jean-Benoît Lafond, Arcadius Mossou and Victorien Justin Agué), converged on Ouagadougou to speak with 45 stakeholders taking part in the workshop, who all came from ministries or other key institutions in the member states (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo).

The purpose of the workshop was to review the implementation strategy for an energy efficiency program within WAEMU, assess the progress made, highlight the expected results and go over the roles of key players. The workshop was meant as a catalyst in order to define and align activities planned for the summer: (1) conducting two market studies—one for Togo and one for Côte d’Ivoire; and (2) organizing focus groups with the population on the available energy labelling models.

About the WAEMU-OIF Energy Efficiency Program

The WAEMU-OIF/EE Program, set to last 24 months, is an initiative launched by the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) through the Institut de la Francophonie pour le développement durable (IFDD), its subsidiary institution. The program is part of the Regional Initiative for Sustainable Energy (IRED) whose aim is to improve energy efficiency within the WAEMU zone, more specifically in the services, residential and industrial sectors. This program has two major components:

• Energy labelling project for appliances within the WAEMU zone (Phase II)
• Regional energy efficiency code project for new construction in the WAEMU member states

As the main technical partner, Econoler assists member states in developing a regional standard, opening test laboratories in the region for energy labelling, providing a model energy efficiency code for buildings and implementing a regional directive in keeping with the legislation in place in the participating member states.