The role that young people can have in spreading climate change messages and recruiting behaviour change is becoming more and more apparent.  This hasn’t gone un-noticed in Sudan where an energy-efficient lighting awareness campaign was designed specifically to target primary school children as a route to engaging their families and communities. This is particularly important in Sudan where the illiteracy rate is still high, and many families learn from their children who attend schools. Schools are also usually the focal point for public events such as elections, festivals and pop-up vaccination centres and represent the full cross-section of Sudanese society – including all the different economic classes, races and cultures.

The education campaign was undertaken in October 2022 as part of Sudan’s Energy Efficient Appliances and Lighting (SEEAL) project which is designed to promote, demonstrate, deploy and transfer innovative low-carbon technologies, particularly high efficiency and usage-controlling lighting technologies and climate-friendly room air conditioners. A primary objective of the project is to reduce the strain on Sudan’s already over stretched electricity infrastructure and reduce the increase in fossil fuel dependent power generation that will be required as the proportion of Sudan’s population with access to grid electricity increases and the demand for lighting and air conditioning products rises. The project is being implemented by Sudan’s Ministry of Energy and Oil and the Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA), with support from the United Nations Environment Programme’s United for Efficiency (U4E) technical team and the United Nations Development Programme and with funding provided by the GEF.

The campaign was part of the awareness raising aspect of the project, with messaging focussed on energy conservation, energy efficiency and the introduction of the upcoming energy-efficiency label for lighting and appliances, and complements the other elements of the project which include:

• Development of a national strategy to advance energy efficiency in lighting and air conditioners (later extended to include refrigerators, fans and evaporative coolers) as part of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP).
• Adoption of regulatory mechanisms directing the market towards energy efficient lighting products and air conditioners, including minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), a labelling scheme, and testing and importing procedures.
• Establishment of a monitoring, verification, and enforcement (MVE) system, to ensure that products in the market comply with the proposed MEPS.
• Enhancing the environmentally sound management of lighting products and air conditioners to minimize the leakage of hazardous materials to the environment.

The campaign in Sudan reached a total of 4,177 pupils with delivery in six schools across four states:

• Basighat Primary School for Girls, Khartoum, Dardoog Primary School for Boys, Bahri and Aleya Mohamed Jadain Primary School for Girls, Omdurman in Khartoum State
• Argo Primary School for Boys in Northern State
• Albriyab Primary School for Boys in Aljazeera State
• Alamal Primary School for Girls in North Kordofan State

Being mindful of the often disproportionate impact of climate change on women, particular care was taken to ensure equal targeting of girls and boys in the campaign, with three of the six participating schools being girls’ schools and 60% of the pupils involved being female.

To build engagement with the campaign and assist with the transfer of messages to the pupil’s families and communities, a range of promotional materials were developed to support the events, including project branded face masks, caps, pens, stickers and T-shirts, along with display panels showing the new energy labels for the five products being targeted by the project.

The key communication tool for the campaign messages was a comic booklet specifically written and designed for the audience. It is set in a traditional Sudanese environment and features ‘Super Energy’, a super-hero who flies from community to community explaining the concept of energy efficiency and benefits of energy saving.

Each event followed a similar programme, with carefully tailored messaging to take into account the age of the audience and a mix of activities to maintain their interest:

• Distribution of the promotional materials and breakfast for pupils and teachers
• Introductory speech and Quran reading
• Welcome from the School Manager
• Introduction to the role of the ERA from the Secretary-General of ERA
• An explanation of the concept of energy efficiency and energy saving, and an introduction to the energy label, by the SEEAL Project Manager
• Introduction to the comic booklet by the campaign consultant
• A competition, and prizes, with questions for the pupils to measure their understanding of the messages
• A comedy show finale humorously reminding the audience of the key messages

It was clear from the responses to the competition that the children were engaging enthusiastically with the content and that it was being well absorbed. The reach of the campaign was extended by good media coverage of each event, including TV (both the national channel and local state or private channel), radio and both print and electronic newspapers.

As the project progresses, further awareness raising activities are planned targeting consumers, manufacturers, policymakers, and importers.

In parallel, development of the new MEPS and labels is progressing well. It is expected that they will come into force on a voluntary basis in January 2023 and becoming mandatory towards the end of the year.

For further information on the campaign, click here to download a copy of the campaign report and click here to view a copy of the ‘Super Energy’ comic booklet. Click here to download a copy of Sudan’s National Energy Efficiency Strategy.

For more information on the project, contact UNEP-U4E’s Soledad Garcia at soledad.garcia@un.org or click here to download a copy of the project factsheet.