Together with establishment of Masters’ courses at each of the three African universities, organization of sensitization Workshops is one of the major activities in the PREA project.

All six Workshops have meanwhile been conducted in the three African countries, namely South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda. They were conducted in October 2006 and October 2007, in each session with short intervals in between. All workshops had a common title, “Sustainable and Energy efficient Building in Africa” but were further differently subtitled to reflect areas of local focus which are slightly different from country to country among the three participating African countries.

2006 Workshops

The Workshop in South Africa took place at the Midrand near Johannesburg on 3-4 October 2006. Its subtitle was “DMEs Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Targets: Addressing South Africa’s Energy Crisis through Built Environment Interventions”, where DME stands for Department of Minerals and Energy. The particular local situation in South Africa addressed at this Workshop was the fact that the country did not produce enough electricity to meet the growing demand, giving rise to what is locally termed as an “energy crisis”. That is why this phrase was used in the Workshop subtitle. The workshop which was supported by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) was attended by 150 participants.

The Workshop in Tanzania, subtitled “Addressing Tanzania’s Energy Crisis through Design and

Settlement Development” was organized at the Landmark Hotel in Dar es Salaam on 10-11 October 2006. It was attended by 32 official participants from various government offices and professional organizations and individual professionals. In addition 10 students also attended the Workshop where 16 papers were presented 6 of which were from project partners and 10 from other attendees.

In Uganda, the workshop was subtitled “Promoting Sustainable & Energy Efficient Urban &

Building Design practices in Uganda”. It was organized on 13-14 October 2006 at the Hotel

Africana in Kampala and was attended by 35 participants who included government officials mostly policy and decision makers, professionals including Engineers and Architects, university academic staff members and some students. Eleven papers were presented; of which six came from project partners and five were presented by government officials and professionals. The Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Uganda society of Architects were also represented and their papers were presented.

2007 Workshops

In South Africa the workshop was subtitled: “Socio-Economic Priorities in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Initiatives in the Built Environment in South Africa”. It was organized on 10 — 13 October, 2007 at the Sustainability Institute, Lynedoch, Stellenbosch. There were 55 participants.

In Tanzania the workshop was subtitled: “Potentials for Renewable Energy in Buildings in Tanzania“. It was organized on 15 — 16 October, 2007 at Blue Pearl Hotel, Ubungo Plaza, Dar es Salaam. There were 42 participants.

In Uganda the workshop was subtitled: “Sustainable Built Environments”. It was organized on 22 — 23 October, 2007 at Grand Imperial Hotel, Kampala. There were 72 participants.

The critical situation of electricity supply and the need for new and sustainable energy resources has been underlined by the long almost daily power cuts, especially in Tanzania and Uganda in the last few years. Coincidentally, as if to underline the fact for the Workshoppers, long duration power failures occurred during the course of the events in both Tanzania and Uganda. Water shortages in Dar es Salaam were also indicative of this power problem.

As a form of side activities, some exhibitions served at these workshops made by manufacturers of sustainable energy and building products as well as service providers in the sustainable buildings industry, such as sales representatives and installers of renewable energy products, e. g. PV modules, Solar water heaters etc. One of the other highlights of the Workshops is that they served to bring together all parties involved and interested in renewable energy activities such as businesses and respective departments and individuals in local academic institutions. Certificates were issued to Workshop participants. These certificates had some extra value because in some cases such as Uganda and South Africa they could be used to gain some professional development points which is a requirement of some professional bodies from their members in those countries.

The final proceedings with the presentations, speaker CVs and papers, as well as photos from each event were compiled onto CDs for distribution to the participants of the workshops. Also the final proceedings from 2006 and 2007 are available from the PREA website (http://prea. ises. org) by clicking on the respective workshop, i. e. 2006 or 2007 and then “Final Proceedings”.

Each of the European partner universities contributed to the workshops as expert speakers (with the exception of ULR, France). The European partners were engaged in the development of the programmes during the project meetings and contributed by sharing their knowledge as speakers during the events on their relevant topics of expertise.

Evaluation reports of the workshops were carried out and lists of participants from all six workshops are available. Many of the lessons learnt during 2006 were put into development of the programme and structure of the 2007 workshops. For instance break-away sessions were organised on specific issues as well as more time allotted to discussions — the most important means of participant involvement in the workshops.

Overall the workshops both in 2006 and 2007 were very successful. Participants in all three countries represented a diverse group, from professionals and decision makers to consultants and students.

Generally the participants were enthusiastic and eager to leam about and share their own thoughts and experiences on sustainability in the built environment and renewable energy. Discussions were engaging and brought to light many local issues about housing and energy situations in each country. The second set of workshops also saw the return of many participants from 2006.