In-depth understanding of climate change is crucial for providing rural communities with improved access to renewable energies
By UN CC:Learn volunteer
Mr. Honoré Bonkoungou contributes to the fight against climate change by working to expand the market for renewable energies in the rural localities of Burkina Faso.
What motivated you to attend a training course on the UN CC:e-Learn platform?
HB: The first course I took in 2015 was the “Introductory e-Course on Climate Change.” That was part of a personal development process in the first place part. Later on, in 2016, the Netherlands Development Organization (SNV), which I worked for at that time, took the initiative to publicize this course among its staff, which strengthened my desire to gain further knowledge with UNITAR and UN CC:Learn.
I thus enrolled in two additional courses, namely the “Human Health and Climate Change” course and the “Cities and Climate Change” course, and I happen to have obtained a certificate in each of the three modules.
In what way have these courses changed your life, advanced your career, or increased your income?
HB: Through these courses, I gained in-depth knowledge of climate change, which now enables me as a professional to develop more sound projects that contribute more effectively to mitigating climate change. Knowing that my work has tangible impact on the environment encourages me to further engage in promoting renewable energies.
Even more concretely, I got a new job after I took the UN CC:e-Learn courses. I left the SNV in October 2017 and joined CowaterSogema, a Canadian company which designs and implements solutions resulting in lasting social, financial and environmental impacts in developing countries. I work with them as a Deputy Head of Mission in charge of implementing the “Energy and Sustainable Economic Growth” project in a specific administrative area of Burkina Faso.
I believe that the certificates I got from UNITAR/UN CC:Learn are part of the reason why I was selected for this job, which additionally allows me to earn a better living due to increased work responsibilities.
What kind of actions have you been taking within your community and at work since you attended these courses?
HB: I continue to work on enhancing the use of renewable energy, but most importantly, I want to help last-mile communities in rural areas to identify, develop and implement small renewable energy initiatives, such as setting up supply chains of quality systems for solar lighting and cooking.
Implementing such initiatives enables the communities to reduce their dependency on biomass — which they use for example for cooking, contributing ultimately to mitigating climate change.
What message would you like to deliver about the important role of training in the field of climate change?
HB: Climate change being a major environmental and economic challenge for developing countries, I believe that the organizations engaged in development assistance should be more proactive in raising awareness of their staff on this issue, and should offer them opportunities for capacity building in this field.
At the very least, I think they should promote the training made available by organizations such as UNITAR and UN CC:Learn.
Would you recommend these courses to other learners? If so, why and what improvements would you like to suggest?
HB: Achieving climate change mitigation partly lies in the replacement of fossil energies — which are to a large extent responsible for climate change — with renewable energy sources.
And, as a matter of fact, having excellent knowledge of climate change issues is crucial for effectively promoting the use of such energy sources. When offered in-depth insight into the climate change phenomenon, players working on the ground have the means to develop renewable energy projects that are more viable, more consistent and better tailored to the needs of the communities they serve. The UN CC:e-Learn platform courses are perfectly suited for this purpose.
Nevertheless, I think that all the training materials should be translated into French, so that French-speaking stakeholders can benefit from them too. Indeed, since the “Introductory e-Course on Climate Change” was the only module available in French in 2015, I could not continue the learning process immediately. It was only in 2016 that several other modules were translated into French and that I could register to attend two of those courses.
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Honoré currently works on a project developed by the Canadian Cooperation to promote modern energy services in the rural areas of the country, including connecting rural localities to the national power grid, installing off-grid solar power systems — particularly in social facilities, and expanding the market for “Lighting Africa” certified solar lamps among last-mile communities.
These are non-polluting lamps produced at lower cost by manufacturers who are authorized by the World Bank, as part of a program aimed to support electrification in Africa (https://www.lightingglobal.org/about/).
About UN CC:Learn
UN CC:Learn is a partnership of more than 30 multilateral organizations supporting countries to design and implement systematic, recurrent and results-oriented climate change learning. Through its engagement at the national and global levels, UN CC:Learn contributes to the implementation of climate change training, education and public awareness-raising.
