AFREC is organizing an international virtual Workshop on Bioenergy Reporting and Monitoring in Africa and invited UNSD and other international organizations to partner with them by reviewing the conceptual design, giving presentations and reviewing the final roadmap document. The choice of UNSD and the other partners reflect the potential synergies of working in the same area and the expertise that UNSD can offer.

Bioenergy data relates more directly to SDG7 (Energy), but also to SDG12 (sustainable consumption and production patterns). In many African countries, bioenergy data collection is marred by problems such as weak sectoral establishment and lack of financial, institutional and human capacity. Improving data collection and analysis is key to monitoring bioenergy sectoral trends over time, evaluating sustainability, and developing sound policies. This workshop will give participants an opportunity to discuss and explore the best ways to strengthen capacities of stakeholders on bioenergy data collection, develop best methodologies and explore best practices, strategy for the creation of a viable bioenergy database in Africa and promoting sustainable cooperation among the main stakeholders to improve reporting, monitoring and sustainability of bioenergy resources in Africa.

The workshop will be online and the proposed date is from 22 to 24 June 2021, but the conceptual review began as soon as UNSD was invited to collaborate, and the review of the outcome document will last beyond the end of the workshop.