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Country:  South Africa

Sector:  Low-carbon policy

Expert partners:  E Co. Ltd.  Strategy Development Solutions Ltd

Setting up the policy framework for South Africa’s Hydrogen Society Roadmap.

This skill-share supported South Africa’s Department for Science and Innovation (DSI) in establishing and embedding an effective theory of change and a monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) framework into the development of their Hydrogen Society Roadmap (HSR).

The Hydrogen Society Roadmap sets the strategies and policy direction to help bring together private and public stakeholders and institutions around a common vision for the role of hydrogen and hydrogen-related technologies in accelerating the country’s economic growth and climate commitments.

The Roadmap informs all relevant parties in South Africa of the potential and immediate benefits of developing and deploying hydrogen technologies, and how they can be integrated into the South African Renewable Energy Masterplan.

The HSR aims to enable South Africa to transition to cleaner energy technologies and enable the country to position itself to supply green hydrogen to meet global demand, (particularly from resource-constrained countries), benefiting the South African economy.

This skill-share helped develop and strengthen longer term strategic thinking for the hydrogen society roadmap. It allowed the DSI and its state and non-state partners to develop a robust, implementable, and measurable roadmap. It helped enhance cross-sectoral knowledge about hydrogen, and set the policy framework for the development of the hydrogen economy in South Africa.

Key Actions:

• Stage 1: Hydrogen Society Roadmap Introduction and Theory of Change (ToC) Development: The experts guided the DSI team and industry actors through the process of developing a ToC linked to the National Development Plan including targets for 2030.
• Stage 2: MEL framework/s and implementation: In a series of workshops and mentoring sessions, the experts explored concepts and best practice for the implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning within the Hydrogen Society Roadmap and produced a draft MEL framework.
• Stage 3: Ongoing mentoring and support: The experts supported the roll out of the ToC and monitoring and evaluation framework, ensuring the framework is embedded in the roadmap itself and is regarded as a tool for learning and improvement by key stakeholders.
• The experts supported DSI in developing practical approaches that consider and include Gender, Equity and Social Inclusion aspects in the HSR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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• The DSI and other stakeholders have learnt to construct effective and contextually relevant theories of change and MEL frameworks. This learning will increase the capacity of (hydrogen) policy makers in applying these essential skills to other areas of policymaking in the future.
  
• As a result of the skill-share, the Hydrogen Society Roadmap has incorporated concepts and best practice for the implementation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning. 
• The skill-share built strong working relationships between the DSI, SANEDI and the team of experts.
  
• The HSR was approved by the South African Cabinet on 14 September 2021, with the ToC and MEL framework forming important parts of the document.