Acknowledgements

This document is the result of a joint EC/UNDP initiative, co-funded by the European Commission and UNDP. The report has benefited from valuable contributions from a number of institutions and individuals. Professor Thomas B. Johansson provided overall supervision and guidance for the project, while Amos Tincani, Eric Donni and Artur Runge-Metgzer provided guidance on behalf of the European Commission. As principal international coordinator, Professor Ugo Farinelli prepared the first chapter, coordinated the entire work, and managed the final production of the report. The Sub-Saharan Africa regional chapter was prepared by a team led by Deborah Cornland and Gerald Leach of the Stockholm Environment Institute and Youba Sokona of Environnement et Dloppement du Tiers Monde. Special thanks go to the following contributors to this chapter: Salifou Bengaly, Mike Bess, Frances Crick, Bernard Devin, Anton Eberhard, Randall Fecher, Jennifer Gregory, Mark Hankins, Michael Lazarus, Gordon Mackenzie, Norbert Nziramasanga and Anjali Shanker. Within the chapter the country-specific sections were prepared by Abeeku Brew Hammond (Ghana), Youba Sokona and Michael Lazarus (Zimbabwe), and Salifou Bengaly (Mali). The ACP Small Island States regional chapter was prepared by a team led by Anthony Derrick and Lara Bertarelli of IT Power with contributions from Frances Crick, Oliver Headley, Solomone Fifita, Suresh Raj, and Suliana Siwatibau. The county-specific sections of this chapter were prepared by John Boyce (Barbados) and Maurice Ruggeiro (Fiji).

The production of this report was made possible by the joint support of DGVIII of the European Commission and UNDP. The report itself has benefited greatly from a peer review process, in particular from the review meeting held in Vienna, in June 1998, when 30 experts from ACP countries joined the Member States Experts’ Group on the occasion of an Expert Meeting on Renewable Energy organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry for the Environment, Youth, and Family Affairs. The Member States Experts’ Group met on two additional occasions to review draft versions of the report and the authors would like to thank Member States for their support and encouragement throughout this project.

Annie Roncerel was the UNDP/EAP project manager, responsible for the implementation of the project, participated actively in the review process, with Maria Donnat’s support for the preparation of the workshop in Vienna, and oversaw the final stages of the book. James Graham, based in Brussels, worked as a research assistant on the project, compiling the annexed review of development cooperation activities and providing coordination between UNDP, the EC, and the team of authors of the report. Special thanks to Kimberly Clarke who undertook the final text editing of the report. Thanks also to Serene Ong and Christine Blehle from the United Nations Office for Project Services for their patient administrative support in managing the project, Gilbert Houngbo and Regina Cronin from the UNDP Bureau for Finance and Administrative Services, Laurent Pieandrei from UNDP Brussels and Victoria Caston from the European Commission SRC who helped us to overcome all the difficult steps to bring this project to its successful conclusion.