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In December 1993, New University of Lisbon carried out a study, Systems of Energy Production and Use in a Changing Sahelian Environment - Potential and Policies, requested by European Parliament and European Commission. It was focused on identification of energy / environment problems affecting the Sahelian region. The conclusions of the Cape Verde meeting were based on concrete problems related the energy questions in the region, namely: · massive migration of rural population to towns and consequent increase of wood charcoal · continuous dependence of the region on imported oil and the burden it imposes to the countries balance of payments · deficitary water supply to rural areas · deficitary first medical aid due to inexistence of means to preserve vaccine chains and others · great need of education and training in the area of new and renewable energies Generally speaking, the study and its final workshop concluded that there is a tremendous need for additional research, emphasizing adaptive, strategic, policy research as well as market and impact studies. The final recommendations of the study established several items as a guideline for the further actions in the field: · energy is essential for socio-economic development and scientific and technological progress for the Sahelian region as a whole, and the need to provide sufficient energy services at reasonable cost; · there is a great need to implement energy transition schemes to help reduce the high dependence of the region on imported oil; · there is an urgent need to find adequate energy provision to urban areas of Sahelian countries, thereby reducing the pressure over forest resources; · the improvement of the living conditions of rural population can be in part achieved through adequate energy supplies, thereby reducing rural to urban migration; this can be done through a program of domestic energy integration for the entire Sahel taking into consideration the problematic of rural electrification; · there is a need to implement actions that will help identify economic agents, within the region, that might be interested in energy economics, management and conservation; · there is a great desire to pursue education and training in the field of energy to help overcome the present situation; · there is a need to implement a suitable data base in co-ordination with other national and regional programs; · there is an urgent need to use research for development of certain areas of intervention, namely the integration of different sources of energy. An analysis of the above mentioned study conclusions highlights that energy problems found in Sahel region, generally speaking, are valid for all developing countries, with particularities from one to an other. In the last years International Community, based on the understanding of developing countries' problems related to energy, established some programs trying to improve their energy situation. Unfortunately, some of them practical results have been below expectancies because of several aspects we could mention: · most of the solutions of international programs have been decided without local authorities or specialists. In general, they are not well adapted to local conditions and necessities; · both local authorities and citizens have not been prepared to achieve medium and long term advantages from the international support; manytimes, once the external intervention ended, the project will stop working too; · international projects did not include, use or even take care of endogenous capabilities. These realities which are in a deep correlation with the conclusions of the Sahel study let us to extrapolate to the level of developing countries the necessity of an "educational environment" creation. After an in-depth analysis of the energy related problems from several points of view (developing countries citizens having public responsibilities in his own country, specialists from developed world region with a lot of experience in related problems, past experiences of international interventions, etc.) we arrived to the conclusion that most of the energy related problems have behind them a lack of knowledge regarding energy and its perspectives coming from different reasons and particular conditions (technical and cultural gap, level of development, lack of trust in local authorities capabilities of good decisions taking or good options choosing, etc.). We consider that all this negative aspects could be reduced through a sustained educational & training activity and based- on these conclusions, we start to work on the development of such activity, well planned based-on both scientific principles and already gained experiences. Because of its complexity, the multiple interconnections with all social, political, economical, international structures and its generality degree we call it "Educational Environment" Model. During the development of our educational model, just on the beginning, we had distinguished three different social levels, which will be treated as "plans", namely: · entire society plan; · specialists/ technicians plan; · decision- makers plan. The plans are vertically disposed and according with each developing country realities and particularities they will have different "areas" and "heavies", but with a temporary character. The order of their vertically disposal could and should change with the local and temporal conditions, but in any situation the upper side planes will exert a "pressure" on the others placed in a lower position. This "pressure" will ensure a displacement of the "three plans structure". For example, in a typical situation of a given developing country from Sahel region, facing major problems related with energy [1], the society plan will be the largest, heaviest and placed on the top. Because of the tremendous social and economic problems generated by the energy system crisis [1], it will act as a pressure for the other two plans. More, in this example, the specialists/technician plan is so undeveloped that from practical point of view will degenerate into a point. It means that its influence into the system is practically null. All the pressure will be on the decision-makers plan that have to solve all the assembly of the problems. A scenario for the further evolution that supposes the development of specialists/technicians plan will increase its area and relative importance, placing it in a top position and with an active pressure on the other two. The diversity of real situations existing in developing countries give us the possibility to image and find several other scenario as: a country that adopt energy restructuration measures, as Brazil [3] or a coherent energy policy that have to be implemented will place the decision-makers plan on the top of the stack; it will became the heaviest one, acting with its pressure as the driving force. Normally and as it was proved by past experiences, the "three plans stack" have a random displacement, manytimes different than the right or good one. If an well projected educational & training activity is injected into the three plans, it could be achieved a well directed movement through a sustainable improving and, later on, finally solving the energy related problems. This will conclude our model that could be called "three plans reversed pyramid" model (Figure 1).
Figure 1. "Three Plans Reversed Pyramid" Model It remains the difficult task of the educational & training activity planning, but in respect with the generality degree of the proposed model and its actual level of development, it is possible to provide only the guidelines for its further development: · facilitate the access to energy related problems information to the decision makers through seminars, conferences, etc; · development of several educational packages providing to the decision-makers educational & training tools for their energy policy implementation; · short and long time training courses for specialists/ technicians in specialized centers; · postgraduate courses organized in experienced Universities; · dissemination of information through demonstration projects; · subject related implementation in high schools and schools curricula. We consider that development and implementation of the model will have several long-term positive results: · movement of developing countries through a sustainable energy system; · increasing of users acceptance face to the energy policy implementation and changing; · development of endogenous capabilities and creation of local specialists; · increasing of users responsibility face to the novelty; · overlapping the technical and cultural gap. [1] L. Guimaraes, J.P. Minvielle, Les systemes energetique dans un environnement Sahelien en Mutation: Potentialites et Politique, UNL/FCT (1997) 73 [2] A. Hanel, L.Hoang-Gia, F. Kaboré, B.S.Sy, Proceedings of 13-th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference", Nice, France, (1995) 482 [3] O. S. Pereira, M. Moszkowicz, R.Hill, C.E. Stemmer, Proceedings of 13-th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference", Nice, France, (1995) 769 |
