Starting from October 2018 MDI is providing assistance to the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources of the Republic of Tajikistan to develop and carry out the National Information Campaign on Energy Efficiency. The Campaign will be structured in a way to increase awareness of the general public of the overall benefits of end-use energy efficiency, positive economic and environmental impact from energy smart behavior, and to publicize sources of funding for energy efficiency in the country as economic incentives towards energy savings.  

Today, in Tajikistan, the issues of using renewable energy sources (RES) and increasing energy efficiency (EE) of the national economy have acquired special relevance as they are directly related to the country’s energy and environmental security, sustainable economic development, and competitiveness of domestic production. The Government of Tajikistan actively promotes RES and EE, however, in order to succeed, it is necessary that the political decisions are supported by people. Information campaigns on energy conservation and energy efficiency is the effective tool for creating the demand for end-use energy efficiency in the local communities.

This is proved by MDI’s experience in Ukraine. MDI developed and carried out information campaigns, at the national and local levels, in the framework of three USAID Projects during 2009-2018, and at the local level since 2012 – in the framework of the Educational Program on EE for secondary schools. Today MDI continues the public-outreach-and-education work by educating school students and their parents on EE and energy saving through the innovative online distance learning platform, which ensures high coverage – 850 schools from different regions of Ukraine.

In Tajikistan, a special Sub-Working Group will be established as part of the Ministry’s Working Group on Public Information Outreach on Energy Usage and orientation trainings on RES, EE, tariff regulation, social protection, etc. will be organized for Sub-Working Group members and other stakeholders.  

For proper targeting of the Campaign, MDI will organize Focus Groups to understand the attitudes of different groups of population towards EE and social reforms.

Local media representatives will be trained on the general issues about EE and energy saving.

MDI will also develop the information and outreach materials and provide assistance to the Ministry regarding information dissemination channels.

This assignment will be fulfilled under the USAID Asia Energy Links Project implemented by ECODIT LLC.

Details on the progress of the assignment are here.