AfricaEnergyParks Engages Communities in Tuna to Co-Create Clean Energy and Livelihood Solutions
Community representatives, local stakeholders and AfricaEnergyParks partners have come together in Ghana’s Savannah Region to help shape the next stages of an integrated approach to clean energy access, livelihoods and cleaner cooking.
On 4 March 2026, the AfricaEnergyParks (AEP) project held a co-creation workshop in Tuna, in Ghana’s Savannah Region, bringing together community representatives, Community Resource Management Area (CREMA) stakeholders, facilitators and project partners.
The workshop formed part of AEP’s participatory planning and stakeholder engagement process, providing local communities with an opportunity to contribute directly to decisions about how project activities should be implemented and sustained.
Coming at a key stage of the project – after foundational planning and regulatory work but ahead of the full implementation of project activities – the engagement helped connect technical planning with the priorities, experiences and expectations of communities across the SOJAKODA CREMA area.
An Integrated Approach to Rural Energy Access
Discussions focused on three mutually reinforcing components of the AfricaEnergyParks project. The first is the provision of clean and reliable electricity through a renewable energy microgrid, helping address energy access challenges in communities that remain underserved.
The second is the productive use of energy, with a focus on creating opportunities for livelihoods, agro-processing, artisanal activities and local value creation. Lastly is the promotion of improved cookstoves, designed to reduce firewood consumption, indoor air pollution and pressure on surrounding forests.
Together, these interventions reflect AEP’s wider ambition to ensure that access to renewable energy translates into tangible social, economic and environmental benefits for rural communities.
Communities Help Shape Implementation
Rather than presenting communities with predetermined solutions, the workshop was structured around participatory group discussions. Participants explored four main themes: knowledge sharing and training, community ownership and engagement, improved cookstoves, and sustainability measures and business models.
The group sessions gave participants space to discuss what would be needed for the project to work effectively in their communities, including questions around skills, technology choices, local ownership and long-term management. A plenary session then allowed the groups to present their findings, compare perspectives and identify recommendations that cut across the different themes.
The discussions highlighted strong community interest in the project and broad recognition of its potential to improve energy access, livelihoods, health, environmental sustainability, local capacity and wider social and economic development.
Taking the Engagement into People’s Homes
The co-creation workshop was followed by fieldwork in project communities to assess progress on the ground and gather further feedback from households. As part of the field visit, the project team followed up with 15 randomly selected households testing five different types of improved cookstoves.
The household visits provided an opportunity to understand how the technologies perform in real-life cooking conditions and to collect feedback on community acceptance, preferences, benefits and challenges.
Women who had tested the improved cookstoves highlighted several practical advantages over traditional cooking methods. They reported that the improved stoves produced less smoke, required less firewood and reduced cooking time. Participants also noted that the technologies made it easier to cook indoors throughout the year. This is particularly important during the rainy season, when outdoor cooking can become difficult or impossible.
Addressing the Health Impacts of Traditional Cooking
During the field visits, the effects of traditional indoor cooking were clearly visible. In some kitchens, walls had been heavily blackened by smoke and soot from traditional cookstoves – a reminder of the levels of smoke women and other household members can be exposed to during everyday cooking.
Several women explained that they often preferred to cook outdoors in order to avoid smoke. During the rainy season, however, this option was not always available, leaving households dependent on smoky indoor cooking environments. Reducing this exposure is one of the challenges AfricaEnergyParks aims to address through improved cookstove technologies that can fit within existing cooking practices while using fuel more efficiently.
Alongside the cookstove trials, field observations also showed how small-scale solar technologies are already contributing to everyday energy needs. Stand-alone solar devices, for example, are being used in communities for mobile-phone charging and household lighting.
Strengthening Local Ownership
The Tuna workshop and subsequent fieldwork demonstrated why community participation is central to the AfricaEnergyParks approach. The engagement enabled communities not only to respond to proposed technologies, but also to influence questions around ownership, training, implementation and sustainability.
By incorporating this knowledge early in the process, AEP aims to develop solutions that are technically appropriate, while also reflecting the social and economic realities of the communities where they will be deployed, and contribute to a wider model for integrated, community-driven rural energy access, livelihood development and climate resilience in Africa.
The AfricaEnergyParks project continues to work with local communities and stakeholders to co-create energy solutions that combine renewable electricity, productive uses of energy and cleaner cooking technologies.