Advancing Green Economy through Technology Transfer: Experiences from Malawi

Abstract

The transfer of green technologies to developing countries is often touted as a key green economy measure for alleviating poverty and improving welfare. This qualitative study explores the transfer of renewable energy technologies in Malawi with a view to (i) evaluating how green economy principles have been integrated in technology transfer projects, and (ii) highlighting how successfully implemented pilot and innovative solar energy kiosks and solar fish dryers can serve as case studies on enhancing environmental education efforts. Based on experiences from the projects, a literature review, site visits and key-informant interviews were conducted. A qualitative evaluation was performed based on intuitive judgment and a general framework of internationally agreed-upon green economy principles. The results show that the technology transfer projects integrated a substantial number of green economy principles, and that embracing local traditional knowledge in  implementing modern green economy technologies in the context of helping local communities to alleviate poverty are key factors in encouraging innovation in environmental education, and improving project  acceptability among local communities. We recommend increased knowledge-sharing to popularise the   integration of green economy measures into poverty alleviation projects. This can be accomplished through both technical and educational study visits to the  technology transfer projects, documenting practical, locally generated sustainable ideas, and disseminating information on successes and lessons learnt.