The AREI Action Plan identifies specific activities related to five main areas of work and four cross-cutting areas of work, all complementary to the work done by relevant partners. These activities range from assisting governments interested in strengthening their policy, regulatory, support and incentive frameworks to supporting the development of projects that will lead to the financing of renewable energy projects. A detailed action plan describes these nine elements in detail.
GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT
AREI is African-led and strongly rooted in African policy and decision-making processes. A Board of Directors at the level of Heads of State will mobilize political support, provide strategic oversight and vision, ensure African leadership and ownership of the Initiative, and oversee project implementation and the annual work programme. The Council will be supported by a Technical Committee, in collaboration with multiple stakeholders and an Independent Implementation Unit that will undertake concrete work and coordinate with other actors and initiatives. The African Development Bank (AfDB) will be the administrator of the Initiative and will host the Independent Implementation Unit.
TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
The African Renewable Energy Initiative recognizes that the magnitude of Africa's energy challenges is enormous, as are the opportunities associated with them. Transformative change is necessary and possible, and must be driven by genuine international collaborative efforts and goodwill. By encouraging partnerships, bringing together existing initiatives and mobilizing new international support for secure, decentralized and people-centred energy systems, the initiative will help African countries to access cleaner energy for their development and prosperity.
ENERGY FOR DEVELOPMENT AND PRODUCTIVE SECTORS
The Initiative highlights the fact that in addition to ensuring appropriate access to electricity for households and families, access must also be sufficient to lead productive sectors to greater job creation in local and national contexts; allowing for economic development and greater resilience. This includes meeting the needs of small agricultural production, micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of both quantity and quality of access, leading to a vision that advocates access to electricity beyond the strict minimum needs for households.
MOVE QUICKLY TO FUTURE ENERGY SYSTEMS
AREI is considering intelligent, decentralized energy systems that can support the combined production of several renewable energy sources. With a very diversified ownership base compared to conventional and centralized systems, a large number of households, communities, cooperatives, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large enterprises, are becoming both producers and consumers of electricity. This will allow Africa to move quickly to the energy systems of the future.
PEOPLE-CENTRED ENERGY
For the poor, better access to energy means potential for improving livelihoods. The Initiative will then promote unprecedented efforts to reach populations currently outside the national electricity grids. It will expand access to electricity for social services as African societies develop the provision of social security and other means to improve well-being for their populations in the coming decades.
CROSS-CUTTING ACTIVITIES
In addition to the main groups of activities, several complementary, facilitating and cross-cutting areas of work are essential to meet the principles and objectives set out in the AREI Framework. These crucial working groups provide a vital bridge between the main actions and the expected results.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENTS OF TECHNOLOGIES USING RENEWABLE ENERGIES
Renewable energy technologies have different characteristics and therefore have different implications for the sites and communities where they will be deployed. In addition, given the magnitude of the associated challenges, the AREI Framework takes into consideration the importance of recognizing and including guarantees, participation and equity principles from the outset. In this respect, many measures need to be taken quickly, such as the development of fundamental principles of social and environmental guarantees and the development of procedures for local social and environmental impact assessments of individual projects, as well as procedures and systems for the systematic assessment of renewable energy technologies as such, with regard to their environmental implications (life cycle assessment, recyclability, etc.) and social implications (e.g. their implications for women and poor populations). Preliminary activities to be undertaken in this area of work also include collecting information on renewable energy resources and technologies and assisting countries in assessing their needs for renewable energy technologies.
ESTABLISHMENT OF MULTI-STAKEHOLDER COLLABORATION
The multiple facets of AREI's implementation strategy involve and will require bringing together all types of stakeholders. Community and civil society participation will be an integral part of AREI's collaboration with multiple stakeholders, as will the participation of the private sector (SMEs and large companies), academia and other stakeholders. The actions planned in this work area will strengthen participation in all major activities, from local to continental scale. Activities to be put in place from the outset will include the development (in multi-stakeholder processes) of principles for participation, the identification and review of relevant experiences and models from other multilateral forums, the establishment of systems for sharing effective methods and procedures for multi-stakeholder collaboration and the regular organization of meetings and conferences at the national, sub-continental and continental levels.
MONITORING AND EVALUATION OBSERVATORY IN THE BROADER CONTEXT
This area of work highlights the need for AREI to constantly monitor and evaluate new realities and circumstances that may affect the prospects that AREI offers and the dangers that it takes into account. Activities in this area include the creation of appropriate and dynamic spaces for dialogue, within and outside the Independent Implementation Unit and the Technical Committee, involving multiple stakeholders and experts.
COMMUNICATION AND DISSEMINATION
As AREI is implemented, it will be essential to communicate and connect with all stakeholders, internally and externally. To ensure the effectiveness of communication capacities and dissemination plans, all African countries must be taken into account and the prospects for the ultimate success of AREI must be considerably improved.
AREI will take into account various stakeholders during the process, including opinion leaders and artists, ensure the multi-directional flow of information and the sharing of experiences and facilitate the implementation of measures in all areas of work.