From May 7th to May 23rd 2017, the Arava Institute held its 6th annual MASHAV* training program entitled “Renewable Energy as a Catalyst for Regional Development”. The training program was part of the ongoing work of the Arava Center for Sustainable Development (ACSD).
The eight women and seventeen men who were chosen to attend represented eighteen countries from the developing world: Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Liberia, Nigeria, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.The participants were all professionals, working for government, non-governmental organizations, decision-making bodies, academia and the private sector.
The workshop exposed participants to topics such as: the strategic role of renewable energy including policy tools and trends; energy security: economics and project management; small and large scale technologies; bio-gas uses and applications including heating, cooking and refrigeration: waste to energy; entrepreneurship in the renewable energy field; plus lab and fieldwork experiences.
The group toured a variety of professional sites including Ketura Sun 5 MW and Ketura Solar 40 MW solar fields; Kibbutz Elifaz hydroponics and wind energy; Eilat-Eilot Renewable Energy Center; Kibbutz Lotan Center for Creative Ecology; Kibbutz Neot Smadar passive cooling tower; The Vidoor Center for Agriculture in the Central Arava.
Highlights of the seventeen-day course also included sessions about Judaism, Zionism and Kibbutz Ketura; interactions with kibbutz residents; guided trip to Timna Park and floating in the Dead Sea; guided Jerusalem old city tour; MASHAV culture night with kibbutz members joining to learn from participants about their cultures; and a final ceremony in Jerusalem attended by the Director of MASHAV’s training programs, Ambassador Mattanya Cohen in addition to ambassadors and consulate representatives from the Paraguay and Rwandan consulates in Israel.
The participants left the Arava Institute and Israel inspired and equipped to advance Renewable Energy projects in their own countries.
Congratulations to the MASHAV team: Dr. Shmuel Brenner, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Tali Adini, Avigail Ben Yohanan and intern Mor Bisk for implementing this extremely successful course.
*MASHAV:
Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation, known as MASHAV in its Hebrew acronym, was founded in 1958 as part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is responsible for initiating and implementing Israel’s development cooperation program worldwide. MASHAV aims at transferring the expertise and technologies that have assisted Israel in its own path to development to other countries.
