SNV and partners support ground-breaking biodigester event in Burkina Faso

SNV is lending its full support to the upcoming international biodigester conference which will be held October 2-4 in Burkina Faso. Partners sponsoring the event include The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS) and Hivos.

About the event

The event which is in its second edition is an initiative of the government of Burkina Faso. The theme of the conference is Biodigesters: A solution for energy and food security. This year’s event builds on the “Declaration of Ouagadougou” an outcome of last year’s event which is a multi-country commitment to the promotion and dissemination of biodigester technologies in West and Central Africa.

Declaration of Ouagadougou

Last year’s conference culminated in His Excellency Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, the president of Burkina Faso presiding over the public reading of the declaration which was endorsed by 11 countries and is heralded as the start of a new era for biodigester technology in Africa. Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroun, Chad, Guinee Bissau, Guinee Conakry, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo agreed to strengthen and scale up ongoing national biodigester projects/initiatives. In addition, they agreed to develop and implement new national biodigester programmes based on sustainable market development approaches and the creation of environments conducive to the widespread use of biodigester technology.

Since the initial event, the signatories’ countries have been engaged in a discussion process relating to the establishment of a West and Central African Biodigester Alliance to facilitate the large scale dissemination and use of biodigesters in the region.

It is expected that at the end of this event on day 3 that the attending country ministers will sign the final preparatory documents leading to the creation of this alliance.

SNV at the event

SNV has decades of experience in the biogas sector and will contribute to the debates and discussions over the course of the event sharing and exchanging knowledge with with attendees.

In addition, Jean Mark Sika who is the fund manager for ABPP will speak on behalf of SNV and Hivos and give an overview of the progress of the programme to date and the lessons learnt so far.

National Biodigester Programme of Burkina Faso ABPP

The National Biodigester Programme of Burkina Faso (PNB-BF), one of the five national programmes under the Africa Biogas Partnership Programme (ABPP), has obtained remarkable results in improving food security through the use of bio-compost, savings in non-renewable biomass and the quality of life particularly for women and children by reducing indoor air pollution and the daily burden of fuel collection.

To learn more about this event please click here or visit the organisers website. Please note that the information documents are in French.

Learn more about SNV in the Biogas sector

• The Africa Biogas Partnership Programme is undertaken in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burkina Faso. Over a quarter of a million people have benefitted from ABPP so far.

• The overall objective of NBPE+ project is to improve the living standards of farmers and their families, in the Ethiopian regions of Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumuz, Gambela, Oromia, SNPPR, Somali and Tigray

• Since 2013 the Vietnam Biogas Programme has been supported by by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Energising Development (EnDev) programme, and started introducing the innovative Results-Based Financing (RBF) mechanism to  deploy the full potentials of biogas enterprises.

See more examples of SNV's work in the biogas sector below.