The focus of this exchange activity is a social alliance and collective learning process between NGOs and rural communities from three regions of Colombia (Santander, Córdoba and Antioquia). It is based on the accumulated results achieved previously in a WISIONS supported project and ongoing community work in the field of renewable energy and sustainable livelihood strategies.
The previous experiences highlight the need to empower community-based organisations in order that they can gain hands-on experience, technical capacity and social acceptance in their rural localities to implement energy technologies according to specific needs and local contexts.
Therefore, these organisations will now be directly engaged in the design and application of renewable energy technologies. The activity includes three exchange visits and workshops during a fifteen-month period, where fifteen selected community members will progressively gain the necessary practical knowledge to design and adapt solar and biogas technologies at community level.
Follow-up exercises will then be carried out directly by the community trainers with social, technical and methodological support from the project team. The project also seeks to design community action plans for renewable energy technologies and strategies for future knowledge sharing with other thematic platforms, such as the biogas network RedBioCOL and campaigns for energy and food sovereignty.
The specific objectives of this exchange activity are:
- To present the proposed activities to the three regions and identify the fifteen community trainers
- To carry out three national community trainer workshops (one in each region) and obtain socio-economic and environmental baseline data
- Hands-on experience of community-trainers (participatory design, adaptation of technologies, implementation, follow-up) in each region
- To design community action plans for ongoing networking activities
- To analyse the socio-economic and environmental effects of the training and community action plans
Projects with same technology
Exchange: Community Exchange and Capacity-Building in Energy Alternatives for Food Production
The main objective of this exchange activity was to link the concepts of energy sovereignty and food sovereignty using a two-pronged approach: the provision of hands-on capacity-building in sustainable energy technologies for food production and setting up a participatory dialogue among civil society organisations in Colombia.
Powering a village sustainably: generating electricity from waste-based biogas
To facilitate access to electricity in rural communities through community enterprises that generate electricity by using local sources.
Projects in same country
An Integrated Biogas-Water System for Sustainable Water Heating and Food Production in Arid Environments
This project aims to address the challenge of water scarcity in mountainous regions of Colombia by introducing an integrated biogas-water system at a hotel in the region.
Exchange: Community Exchange and Capacity-Building in Energy Alternatives for Food Production
The main objective of this exchange activity was to link the concepts of energy sovereignty and food sovereignty using a two-pronged approach: the provision of hands-on capacity-building in sustainable energy technologies for food production and setting up a participatory dialogue among civil society organisations in Colombia.