Africa Biogas Partnership Programme
The Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP) is a partnership between Hivos and SNV in supporting national programmes on domestic biogas in five African countries. The Programme aims at constructing 100,000 biogas plants in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burkina Faso providing about half a million people access to a sustainable source of energy by the year 2017
The overall objective of the ABPP is to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through sustained construction of domestic biogas plants as a local, sustainable energy source. This will be fulfilled through development of a commercially viable and market-oriented biogas sector.
The Programme is financially supported by the Directorate General for International Cooperation (DGIS) of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and SNV – Netherlands Development Organisation. The financial contribution of DGIS amounts to 20milion Euros covering approximately one third of the total programme costs. These funds are channeled through Hivos, which carries out the role of fund and programme manager, operating from Nairobi. SNV provides capacity building services in the five countries and takes responsibility for knowledge management at the international level. Knowledge and skills gained by SNV through setting-up of large-scale domestic biogas programmes in Asia is shared in the ABPP programme.
The ABPP is part of a broader objective of DGIS targeting the provision of sustainable energy to 10 million people by the year 2017.
The construction of biogas plants will tremendously improve living conditions of many African households. Particularly, women and children will improve their health condition as cooking on biogas is smokeless. The collection and use of biomass fuel, mostly firewood, will be eliminated hence reducing environmental destruction and creating time for other economic activities. Equally, families that have attached a latrine to the digesters experience improvements in hygiene levels.
Application of bio-slurry (an organic fertilizer) in the agricultural fields will improve soil fertility and boost production thus reducing incidences of hunger and malnutrition as well as providing income streams for the households.
Greenhouse gas emission is bound to reduce, since biogas is a clean source of energy, through a sustainable mechanism to reducing global warming through down scaling of use of fossil fuels. Employment opportunities, too, have increased through the newly established domestic biogas business sector.
The programme aims at foregrounding the role of women in society by empowering them as plant owners, masons, and by creating valuable economic time previously wasted in search of fuel.
Replication of biogas technology will lead to a sustainable technology transfer hence lead to improvement in living standards of millions in the target countries; more children will have an opportunity to learn under clean light, many mothers empowered to economically engage in productive ventures, while the plants construction will continue to generate employment opportunities.