Biomass Energy Strategy (BEST)

What is the BEST initiative?

The BEST initiative (coordinated by the GIZ sectoral program HERA http://www.gtz.de/en/themen/12941.htm and the EUEI PDF http://www.euei-pdf.org/ ) has been established to support governments in developing national biomass energy strategies. It provides a structured and replicable approach on how to develop a comprehensive strategy. EUEI PDF offers concrete funding for technical support for the strategy development process. At the same time, the initiative aims at building awareness of biomass energy as the main source of primary energy in Africa and its relevance to poverty alleviation, in particular among decision makers at the policy level and other important stakeholders.

The core document of the BEST initiative is the “BEST Guide” http://www.euei-pdf.org/publications.html .It provides policy-makers, energy planners and consulting companies with an orientation for the development of a national Biomass Energy Strategy (BEST). It defines strategy development as a systematic and ongoing process that follows a consultative and participative approach. The guide is available in English and French.

What is the outcome of the first phase of the BEST initiative?

During the first phase of the BEST initiative, studies have been developed in Botswana, Malawi and Rwanda. These country activities have shown that the development of a strategy is not an easy task to do. At times there are conflicting interests of various important stakeholders to be addressed at any of the stages of the BEST process. These stages are:
1. Stakeholder analyses and team formation
2. Baseline sector analysis
3. Development of scenarios
4. BEST strategy development
5. Action planning
6. Adoption and implementation
The challenges are as much caused by the complexity of the content (link nach unten) as by the complexity of the multi-stakeholder BEST process. (link nach unten)
The first two BEST documents have been approved and published by the governments of Botswana (http://www.euei-pdf.org/project+M52a0135e442.html) and Rwanda (http://www.euei-pdf.org/project+M505dd672697.html) . Some selected activities have been implemented in these countries, but they have not been implemented as a comprehensive package within a national program.
Important lessons were learnt in the BEST process of Malawi: (http://www.euei-pdf.org/project+M582806a2a06.html). While the document has been finalized, it has not (yet) been approved and published by the government. As it turned out towards the end of the process, ministerial partners in Malawi were expecting a "strategy for mainly substituting biomass with modern fuels", rather than a "strategy on how to make the use of biomass energy more sustainable". This turn came to some surprise as the ministry was fully informed about the focus of BEST on sustainable use of Biomass Energy before their application to BEST was written. However, changes in personal in the ministry as well as in the overall political environment triggered a change in the perception of biomass energy at ministry level.
The results of the BEST process were not really accepted by the political decision makers. Though they were involved and given the opportunity to comment at all stages of the process, there was no clear mechanism to ensure that the agreement of the result of one step of the BEST process is the condition for the implementation of the next step of the process. This resulted in a contractual obligation for the continuation of the process despite of a dwindling support by the ministry. For the following BESTs, these lessons learnt have been integrated into the preparation and implementation process by way of strictly defined monitoring and cut-off points to ensure clarity about joint priorities and objectives among the major stakeholders and to ensure that the outcome of the BEST becomes more than just another study.
BEST can have impacts on various levels. The more likely impact is a change in the political debate on the role and the importance of biomass energy for the future of the basic energy supply of major parts of the population. However, as seen in the case of Malawi, these impacts can be undermined by political changes.
As indicated above, the BEST initiative is not financing the implementation of the recommendations which are outlined in the strategy. It is therefore important to involve interested donors to be part of the BEST process in order to enhance their readiness to support the implementation of the action plan later on. However, the presence of a BEST can also be used by governments to guide donors’ interests to support biomass energy initiatives based on the BEST action plan.

What is the content of BEST studies?

The Biomass Energy Chain comprises three elements:
• The production of biomass feedstock for energy generation
• The usage of biomass feedstock for energy production
• The usage of energy produced from biomass feedstock
The past development and current situation of these three steps of the biomass energy chain has to be well understood. However, the chain operates in competition to alternative options which also have to be considered:
• The use of resources to produce biomass feedstock for energy is competing with other possible uses of these resources (e.g. production of food and other biomass products).
• The use of biomass feedstock for energy production competes with other uses of the same biomass feedstock (e.g. wood for furniture production).
• The use of biomass energy (e.g. in households) is in competition with other energy carriers (e.g. LPG).