81270876-Consultancy Services for Development and Facilitation of Trainings for Solar Pumping and Irrigation Systems in Ghana

The ‘Green People's Energy’ project in Ghana is a proposed country measure as part of a global program commissioned by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development to improve conditions for supplying rural regions in selected African countries, including Ghana, with decentralised renewable energy. The project supports the adoption of modern energy through the introduction of alternative and sustainable renewable energy and energy efficient technologies with the participation of citizens and businesses. The project in Ghana is proposed to focus on the following thematic areas: Output 2.1 and 2.2 The promotion and further development of the capacities of skilled experts of solar companies, credit and financial institutions and public technical universities; Output 3.1 and 3.2 The use of decentralized renewable energy systems for small-scale rural enterprises in the agricultural sector and social institutions such as farmers and health facilities for income-generating activities through technical and financial support schemes; Output 4.1 and 4.2 The development of business support services for investment in decentralized RE systems for project developers and other investors as well as the improvement of framework conditions. Solar Pumping and Irrigation Systems (SPIS) have the potential to boost farm productivity and income generation when used (cost-) effectively.Thus, the project seeks to strengthen capacities of solar energy companies to ensure an cost- and energy-efficient dissemination of SPIS in Ghana. Apart from solar energy experts, another group with knowledge gap in the subject area are facilitators at public training institutes. They are responsible for providing technical trainings in the renewable energy space. Furthermore, credit officers from financial institutions (responsible for assessing loan request from farmers for financial support to purchase these SPIS) lack experience and knowledge in the subject area — and hence are unable to properly assess applicants for financial support. In the context of capacity development, the project seeks to develop informal competency-based training in collaboration with three (3) local training institutes. These 3 institutes have been selected by the political partners and expressed their readiness to collaborate within the aforementioned project. To this regard, Memorandum of Understanding have each been mutually signed by GIZ and the Ho Technical University, Sunyani Technical University, as well as the University for Development Studies in Tamale. In collaboration with these institutes, Training of Trainers (ToT) courses will be conzeptualized, planned, organized and conducted to: (A) Facilitators of competency-based trainings of the 3 selected training institutes (ToT); And expert training courses will be conzeptualized, planned, organized and conducted for the following two target groups: (1) Technical experts mainly from solar energy companies as well as agricultural engineering extension officers; (2) Financial experts such as credit officers mainly from financial institutions. A national needs assessment of the mentioned target groups and of the mentioned training institutes exist and shows specific training needs in SPIS. 150 SPIS will be installed in Ghana within the next 12 months by solar energy companies. The SPIS will be bought by local farmers and women groups of the Ghanaian agricultural sector. The German Cooperation will provide technical assistance and financial support under a result-based finance scheme to the solar energy companies upon verification of design and installation of the respective SPIS. Technicians of these companies may be receivers of the mentioned trainings, as well as technicians of Ghana Irrigation Development Authority (GIDA).