Enabling evidence-based energy system decisions for sustainable development in Africa
AISESA's approach to African realities:
Africa faces a unique set of energy and development challenges ranging from energy poverty and weak institutions to high financing costs and climate vulnerability. At AISESA, we respond with an African-owned, African-led approach rooted in research, inclusion, and systems thinking. Our work is organized into five thematic clusters and guided by three core pillars: building context-specific knowledge, developing system leaders, and ensuring real-world impact.
AISESA’s work is organised across five interconnected clusters designed to drive systems change at scale.:
1
Clean energy pathways for development
This work cluster focuses on defining country-specific clean energy pathways that maximize sustainable and low-carbon development goals. It uses quantitative energy system models and qualitative scenario approaches to optimize renewable energy investments while considering social equity, economic growth, and environmental impacts. AISESA collaborates with local researchers and decision-makers to tailor models to country-specific needs, with a focus on expanding affordable energy access and fostering tangible economic and social development benefits.
3
Policies and governance
The AISESA research cluster aims to study policy strategies, instruments, equity, and governance processes for enabling energy and societal transitions in Africa. It will create evidence on successful policies, such as power market reforms, regulatory performance, and sustainable development linkages. The cluster aims to bridge the gap between energy planning and actionable policies by addressing governance structures, political trade-offs, and fostering cross-sectoral collaborations.
5
Building institutions and skills in Africa
AISESA’s mission is to not only produce knowledge but create skills and structures which can translate this knowledge into tangible outcomes on the ground. Specifically, AISESA’s work cluster 5 is dedicated to (1) build individual capacities, (2) build new institutions and (3) foster intra-African learning. This will be embedded in tight feedback loops and monitoring systems to facilitate rapid experiential learning. This will include close dialogue learning from independently designed pilot energy-development initiatives.
2
Effective implementation approaches
​AISESA's second cluster focuses on context-specific approaches to implement energy systems pathways for socio-economic development. It aims to create country-specific narratives and co-create concrete delivery models with local stakeholders, focusing on both energy and adjacent sectors. The cluster aims to maximize local value addition and accelerate energy delivery in rural and poor areas.
4
Access to affordable finance and technologies
This cluster explores ways to increase access to affordable finance for energy transitions, focusing on boosting climate finance, improving cooperation, and making projects bankable. Special emphasis is placed on scaling renewable energy, fostering technology transfer, and enabling Africa to play a larger role in global energy transitions, AISESA integrates these financial strategies with broader policy, governance, and implementation plans.
African Ownership
AISESA is African-led and African-owned, with a long-term institutionalisation strategy in Africa. It embodies a paradigm shift towards sustainable energy systems analysis that are conceptualised, conducted and implemented by Africans, for Africans. At inception, AISESA featured over 200 dedicated African and international individuals from top African and global energy research institutions covering nearly 30 countries in Africa, with an ambition to grow across Africa. Network members from the Global North operate under a firm principle of solidarity with African leadership.
Evidence-based Policy Making
AISESA enables evidence-based energy and climate policy making for development across Africa. AISESA aims to build a deep and lasting national presence in a set of pilot countries in Africa, as well as expand its geographical reach to ultimately include all African countries. Its skill and structure-building efforts will be instrumental in equipping policymakers and local stakeholders across sectors and domains with the ability to create energy pathways for sustainable development. This combination of Pan-African, national, and local areas of focus, paired with its credibility as being African-led and African-owned, will help in disseminating and translating AISESA’s work into concrete policy making, which ultimately benefits the African people.