The ProGREEN Leadership fellows and team facilitators gathered in Dakar, Senegal on December 7th and 8th at Le Ndiambour Hotel to mark the fellows program’s final learning event. From March to December 2022, START has led the ProGREEN Leadership Fellows Program for West African early career researchers and professionals working in the field of renewable energy, part of the Promoting Gains in Renewable Energy (ProGREEN)- West Africa program supported by the Fonds de Recherche du Québec. The fellows have journeyed through combined asynchronous and synchronous modules on Foundations for Impactful Collaborations, Systems Thinking, Foresight, Reflexivity and Empathy, Flexibility, Learning and Growing in the Face of Discomfort and Uncertainty, Power, Gender, and Intersectionality, Justice and Dealing with Stuckness in a System. These modules were complimented by supplemental labs on communications, current solar and bioenergy landscapes, renewable energy finance, and proposal writing.

During the final learning event, the program’s essential elements were revisited with fellows, but more importantly, they had the opportunity to exchange insights about their fellowship experience with their peers, reflect on the most important lessons learned, and share their learning from the fellowship and their broader work with distinguished guests who joined the group on December 8.

Additionally, the fellows had a chance to learn about the leadership journeys of the guests themselves. This provided valuable and inspiring exhanges on the importance of communication, being humble, being confident, and supporting African leadership of renewable energy and sustainability futures in Africa.

At the end of the two days there were shared sentiments of thankfulness for new friends and connections, strengthened leadership capacities, and for being able to share the time together in person. Fellows found great satisfaction in these two-day activities. More information will be provided in the report in early 2023. Stay tuned!