Africa's Energy Transition: An Opportunity for a Renewed U.S-Africa Partnership

Name: Africa's Energy Transition: An Opportunity for a Renewed U.S-Africa Partnership
Start: 2023-03-30T12:00:00-0400
End: 2023-03-30T13:00:00-0400

RSVP Required Open to the Public

Join the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs in a workshop series in Spring 2023, Africa in Focus: African Agency in International Climate Policy and Energy Geopolitics. This series centers African voices in discussing the causes, consequences, and policy solutions for global climate change.

Date: Thu, Mar 30, 2023 Time: 12:00pm - 01:00pm Location: Online

Panelist
Rashid Ali Abdallah

Panelist
Katie Auth

Moderator
Henry Lee

Event Details

This event will examine the challenges and opportunities for African states, and the continent at large, in transitioning to cleaner energy sources and the role that the U.S can play in supporting a just energy transition.

Registration
This event is hybrid and RSVP is required. In-person participation is open to Harvard ID holders only. Members of the public are welcome to join online.

Speakers
Rashid Ali Abdallah, Executive Director, African Energy Commission
Katie Auth, Policy Director, Energy for Growth Hub

Moderator
Henry Lee, Director of Environmental and Natural Resource Program & HKS Senior Lecturer in Public Policy

A recording of the event is available here.
Rashid Ali Abdallah is the Executive Director of the African Energy Commission (AFREC) since November 2018. Under his leadership, AFREC has developed several programmes and undertook several initiatives to support the African Energy Sector Transformation and African Union Member states’ effort toward energy transition, by creating the enabling policies and strategies to increase investment for the African Energy Sector, and to meet the AU Agenda 2063, Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) and the global commitment on climate change.
Prior to joining AFREC, Mr. Abdallah served as the Head of Energy Division within the Department of the Infrastructure and Energy at the African Union. He has over 22 years of experience in energy field at national, regional and continental level.
Mr. Abdallah hold a M.Sc. Project Management from Birmingham University - UK, Post Graduate Diploma in Energy Engineering and a B.Sc. (Hons) Mechanical Engineering from Khartoum University- Sudan.

Katie Auth is Policy Director at the Energy for Growth Hub and a non-resident scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace's Africa Program. Her work focuses on strengthening US-Africa relations and in shaping policy within the US government and at multilateral institutions, particularly regarding energy investment, climate, and development finance. Previously, she served at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as Senior Development Finance Advisor and as Deputy Coordinator of the US Government’s Power Africa initiative. She holds an MSc in Natural Resource Management from the University of Akureyri and a BA from Bowdoin College. Katie is a co-host of the Hub’s podcast series High Energy Planet with Research Director Rose Mutiso.