Project Detail

Providing Green Public Space for the Demonstration of Renewable Energy Alternatives and Environmental Monitoring in Okrika Waterfront, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

This project aims to demonstrate relevant climate change mitigation measures and increase awareness by building community capacity to design and implement reliable community renewable energy provision.

The project centres on solar energy solutions for a public space in Tonipriama Ama (also known as Okrika Waterfront) that is responsive to local needs, including those of young women. Powering utilities from public lighting ? which has well-documented impacts on increasing the confidence and safety of women ? to mobile phone charging points. A solar powered hotspot will demonstrate and build demand for them at the household and community scale. Demonstration and demand are critical components of systemic change.

Central to our scaling strategy is purposing this project to establish the groundwork for a UNDP-led GEF-7 project, Climate Compatible Urban Development in Port Harcourt, which has been endorsed as a national priority by Nigeria?s GEF focal point. In part due to its dense urban context and because of a project design geared to modular expansion and network scalability of community solar mini-grid solutions, this project will deliver particularly broad and deep impact.

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Project Snapshot

Grantee:

HUMAN CITY MEDIA ADVOCACY INITIATIVE

Country:

Nigeria

Area Of Work:

Climate Change Mitigation

Operational Phase:

OP6 -Y4 (Jul 18 - Jun 19)

Grant Amount:

US$ 50,000.00

Co-Financing Cash:

Co-Financing in-Kind:

US$ 37,916.00

Project Number:

NGA/SGP/OP6/Y4/CORE/CC/19/19

Start Date:

8/2020

End Date:

6/2021

Status:

Satisfactorily Completed

Project Characteristics and Results

Inovative Financial Mechanisms

An encounter and exchange workshop, one of such avenues, will bring together waterfront residents, duty bearers and civil society members to discuss project process, findings, lessons learned and outputs. In the context of the ongoing discussion, this encounter will focus on identifying common concerns and challenges among stakeholders; identifying potential solutions to challenges and beginning to identify concrete steps; and improving the ongoing community programme in order to provide data that is practical and useful to achieving those solutions.

Significant Participation of Indigenous Peoples

Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment

Creative documentation of project activities and communication of outputs and results is an intrinsic aspect of many project activities. For example, the collaborative design process is documented by community participants and radio programmes are produced by them under the guidance of mentors as part of capacity building programmes. Each touch point is designed to reach a particular audience: the mobile cinema (our ?internet on the street?); the radio programmes reach audiences citywide and beyond; but perhaps the most significant drivers of communication are the project participants themselves, a cohort of committed communicators and passionate advocates who will catalyse local conversations and participate in broader project exchanges. Linking renewable energy to media components will amplify advocacy efforts, connecting grassroots climate action networks with state-level decision makers and international partners. This, in turn, will build demand in waterfronts and across the city for an equitable, climate compatible approach to development that makes the city a safe and sustainable place to be for all. A significant piece of the project involves engaging with waterfront residents through a range of different mediums to understand their challenges, existing practices and build their awareness. These interactions will require development of communication materials that contextualise issues as well as directly lead to the development of subsequent media programmes that are rooted in on-the-ground challenges and solutions. Creating transparency in the process and outputs is critical for improving understanding and demand for climate compatible development at the household and community level.

Gender Focus

Previous observation exercises carried out by the community mapping team of waterfront community spaces have highlighted disparities, particularly gender based, in who has access to, or even who utilizes, open spaces. While many women head households and run businesses, they also face deep insecurity compounded by customary tenure systems and traditional attitudes. Building on the diverse existing cohort of community volunteers engaged with the project, all public events and training will be focused on encouraging women and youth to participate. Baseline and post-occupancy assessments will be designed to include women only and other marginalized focus groups to ensure that they have a safe space to voice their concerns and provide input of the project.

Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods

Training and capacity building for Chicoco technical trainees on the technical maintenance of renewable energy system

Notable Community Participation

Young people constitute project participants

Project Results

? Young residents of informal settlements gain evidence-based understanding of environmental justice issues and local climate change impacts. Furthermore, this group has developed a deep comprehension of the global context, its connection to local impacts, and an ability to communicate their specific challenges and solutions to peers, community members and duty bearers.
? Local project team gain a sophisticated and creative grasp of environmental justice advocacy and climate change adaptation strategies and production techniques. The project has significantly deepened the cohort?s understanding of the issues, their capacity to produce a wide range of audio-visual work and their strategic sense of how to deploy it effectively to realise campaign objectives. In this regard, the project has contributed to decreasing inequity of access to, and participation in, public discourse around these critical issues.
? With over 85,000 active user engagements on Viral Times, overlooked urban communities in Port Harcourt have reached new audiences with public health, environmental justice and equity issues that directly impact their lives. The online platform has not only deepened the dialogue within waterfront communities, but also with broader city publics and urban cultural practitioners internationally.
? Chicoco Solar tech team gain renewable energy system design and maintenance experience and in particular the capacity of women to lead on technical components of the project has been strengthened.
? Chicoco Radio and Chicoco Cinema gain increased renewable power supply. Not only does this increase the provision of electricity in an under-serviced settlement that lacks reliable municipal energy provision, but also serves as a pilot for launching a broader sustainable development intervention. Powering a community media facility renewably serves to amplify awareness of the impacts renewables can make.

Outputs and Outcomes during this reporting period:
? 15KW solar array, 30 kVA inverter and 41.4 kWh battery system deployed to project site
? Over 10 additional unique media and print pieces, drawing together survey data, environmental research, photography and video documentation, as well as citizen journalism, creative writing and songs, have been produced by our cohort of waterfront participants.
? 5+ articles/audio pieces/songs written and produced by the community mapping and journalism teams that address community environmental justice and climate change issues, published on Viral Times
? Cohort of 20+ waterfront dwellers trained on climate change adaptation
? 5+ waterfront dwellers trained on solar system basic maintenance and fault-finding
? 20+ waterfront dwellers receive training on community data collection tools and processes

+ View more

Indicators

Biophysical

Tonnes of CO2 decreased or avoided by energy efficient and renewable energy technologies or applying environmentally sustainable transport practices introduced by SGP Project 5256

Empowerment

Number of indigenous people participated/involved in SGP project 30

Livehood

Total monetary value (US dollars) of ecosystem goods sustainably produced and providing benefit to project participants and/or community as a whole (in the biodiversity, international waters, and land degradation focal areas as appropriate) 20430

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