The
Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Momodou O. Njie,
has assured media practitioners of his ministry’s support, and collaboration to
work hand in glove with them to ensure more awareness creation on sustainable
renewable energy in The Gambia.
He
said the role of the media in creating awareness on sustainable energy for
clean cooking “is very critical in daily life”.
PS
Njie was speaking at the national sensitisation forum for media practitioners
on sustainable cooking energy, organised by the Ministry of Petroleum and
Energy in collaboration with the ECOWAS Center for Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency (ECREEE), and held yesterday at the Paradise Suites Hotel .
According to Mr Njie, the energy situation in
The Gambia is very critical and there are “tremendous challenges”, but
solvable.
“We need to join forces to create vibrant
advocacy and sensitisation of the media and stakeholders on the need for
sustainable energy for clean cooking in the country,” he added.
PS
Njie further said this goal could not be achieved in isolation of media
practitioners, because the main barriers preventing widespread distribution of
sustainable energy for clean cooking are “inadequate capacity and awareness” of
many stakeholders.
The
media is completely overlooked to address the inadequate access to sustainable
cooking energy solution, he said, adding that “the Ministry of Petroleum deems
it necessary” to build the capacity of journalists and communicators in
advocacy.
The
PS said the capacity building forum would help them reach their objective of
creating awareness for clean safe and affordable energy solutions to the entire
country.
The
training seminar was designed to cover all aspects of stove production from
material sourcing and equipment selection to quality control and dissemination.
Mr
Njie also indicated that the availability of adequate, reliable and affordable
supply of energy, including cooking energy, is critical for the socioeconomic
development of the country.
“That
was the more reason why the Government of The Gambia accords high priority to
the energy sector in its development agenda.”
According
to PS Njie, achieving wide distribution of efficient, affordable, sustainable
and safe-coking fuels and equipment require that a myriad of technical,
economic, social and institutional barriers are overcome.
The
Executive Director of the ECOWAS Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy
Efficiency, Mahamak Kappiah, said the main objective is to equip media
practitioners with the necessary skills, to enable them better advocate for
sustainable forest management and resources.
“Lack
of awareness is a key challenge in this area,” he said, adding that they,
therefore, deemed it fitting to convene a capacity building seminar for media
practitioners to better enhance them to advocate more on the forest cover.
“The
media may be a strong advocacy and asset to clean energy causes, to enable them
better understand of the problem of access to clean energy cooking.”
According
to Mr Kappiah, the seminar was geared towards building the capacity of
journalists and other publication experts in advocacy, so they could help in
the awareness creation through information dissemination to stakeholders along
the value chain.
The
secretary general of the Gambia Press Union, Saikou Jammeh, urged the
government to consider the media as development partners.
The
media should be used by various ministries in their activities and
sensitisation processes, he said.