The ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in collaboration with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) jointly organized a four-day training workshop on Renewable Energy (RE) Policies, Incentive Schemes and Planning Tools from  the 9th to 12th of April 2012, in Praia, Cape Verde. The workshop helped  reinforce capacities amongst the ECOWAS Member States concerning energy planning and policy to promote renewable energies at the national level. Over 70 participants attended the workshop from the Ministries of Energy and Finance of ECOWAS Member States, National Electricity Regulators, Regional and International Organizations, Bilateral and Multilateral Partners, and Utilities and Rural Electrification Agencies. The outcomes of the workshop include the following:

1. Participants Learned about the various policy and incentive schemes to promote RE at the national level, both for grid connected and for access to energy in rural areas.
2. Participants identified the most suitable mechanism to promote RE from the national level.
3. ECREEE obtained an initial input from the ECOWAS Member states about the type of policies and incentive Mechanism to be implemented in the region.
4. ECREEE Strengthened cross-country networking of policy makers on RE policy issues , incentives schemes and implementation.
5. IDEA and ECREEE strengthened their strategic partnership in Policy activities.
6. IIASA presented to West African experts and practitioners the result of their analysis on energy along with two interactive, web-based policy analysis tools.
7. A process of awareness raising and capacity building concerning RE with policy and incentives schemes was initiated in West Africa with national public stakeholders.

Find below the workshop manual and presentations during the workshop. The background documents are available here.