Projects

COOPI

Location: Sierra Leone

Founded in 1965 by Father Vincenzo Barbieri, Cooperazione Internazionale (“COOPI”) has helped more than 100 million people across more than 1,700 projects in 65 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. It works across numerous areas of intervention, including protection, education in emergency, food security, nutritional security, disaster risk reduction, energy, water and hygiene, and migration.

NextEnergy Foundation donated to COOPI in 2019 to contribute to the development of a solar off-grid system (c.70 kWp) in Gbinty Town, Port Loko District, Sierra Leone. The donation has helped to: support the operation of the village mini-grid system; install and operate energy systems for one community health centre, one rural financial institution and one primary school, including site reviews and design selection and build-up of structures; and, conduct training of trainers’ courses for key stakeholders in the energy and education sectors. The mini-grid has played a pivotal role in reducing the use of fossil fuels within the community and CO2 emissions.

The system currently has 49 customers, of which 22 commercial, 25 domestic and 2 industrial. COOPI is working on connecting more potential customers over the coming months. In addition, the organisation is also in the process of identifying potential operation entities to handover the assets, manage the system and sell the produce in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy of Sierra Leone and the local regulator for energy tariffs.

Location: Ethiopia

Founded in 1965 by Father Vincenzo Barbieri, Cooperazione Internazionale (“COOPI”) has helped more than 100 million people across more than 1,700 projects in 65 countries in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East. It works across numerous areas of intervention, including protection, education in emergency, food security, nutritional security, disaster risk reduction, energy, water and hygiene, and migration.

COOPI has been present in Ethiopia since 1995, carrying out numerous humanitarian and development interventions aimed at improving living conditions of marginalized agro-pastoral communities living in drought-prone lowland areas, including those in Amhara, Oromia, Somali and Afar Regional States. COOPI is the leading actor in the Water Hygiene and Sanitation (“WASH”) sector in those regions.

NextEnergy Foundation is proud to announce that it has made a donation to COOPI to install a solar pumping system to rehabilitate a non-functioning borehole in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. This will increase access to water sources for local communities (approximately 2,250 beneficiaries), reducing the distance to water sources from between 500m–2.0 km.

The project is now complete and NextEnergy Foundation is working with COOPI to establish a reporting framework to adequately track the impact of the solar pumping system over the longer-term.