Highlights from Community Meetings in Bulimeni and Mvundla
The Renewable Energy Association of Eswatini (REAESWA), an implementing partner of the Africa Minigrids Program (AMP), recently embarked on a community sensitization drive to promote sustainable environmental practices. The meetings took place in Mvundla and Bulimeni, communities where AMP Eswatini’s first pilot project is located and where the second pilot is soon to be installed, respectively. The community visits align with the AMP’s commitment to applying sound environmental management practices during implementation, encapsulated in the Environmental and Social Management Framework (ESMF).
Representatives from the Environment Management Authority (EEA) and the Climate Change Office (CCO) joined REASWA to discuss the environmental mitigation measures under enforcement. The discussions aimed to enlighten the communities about the safeguards that will reduce the biophysical impacts of the minigrid. Climate change was also a topic of conversation as an area of interest and concern.
REASWA’s Nombuso Dlamini noted that they conducted the site visits in light of the AMP’s responsibility to promote sustainable livelihoods, increase climate resilience and strengthen the adaptive capacity of communities in the AMP’s areas of influence. AMP Eswatini’s Program Manager, Saneliso Makhanya, further highlighted how the sensitization meetings were also an opportunity to take stock of the program’s Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) progress, outlining mitigation measures from both pilots.
During the first sensitization meeting in Mvundla, EEA representative Ndumiso Magagula outlined the importance of upholding those measures for the minigrid site to reduce any adverse environmental impacts from the project captured in the ESMP. He specified how that included the preservation of flora and fauna and other protective elements of the ecosystem that minigrid set-up activities might have disrupted. Ndumiso added that implementing the ESMP is the community’s responsibility, just as it is for the AMP, to help conserve the community’s ecosystem, which is critical to its development.
CCO Weather Forecaster Sifiso Nzalo discussed recent global climate developments that have brought the La Nina and El Nino effects that the country has experienced, as well as how the impact on weather has led to droughts, cyclones, and intense thunderstorms. He then elaborated on leveraging renewable energy sources, such as solar energy, to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the destruction of the ozone layer.
The presentations triggered engaging participatory sessions focused on local myths about weather phenomena. The discussions presented an opportunity to dispel them with scientific facts.
Applying ESMF and ESMP across ongoing AMP activities reinforces a commitment to environmental and social management practices. UNDP prepared the ESMF during the design phase of the first round of National Projects covering ten out of the eleven countries, including Burkina Faso, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Malawi, Nigeria, Somalia, Sudan and Madagascar. It remains an essential guide for the program to date.
These activities are part of the community mobilization activities AMP Eswatini will continue to undertake.