GERES-Afghanistan

About Us

About GERES-Afghanistan :

OVERALL CONTEXT and PROJECT

Set up in 1976, Geres is an international development NGO which works to improve the living conditions of the poorest and tackle climate change and its impacts. As a grassroots actor, the energy transition is a major lever in all its actions. In order to drive societal change, Geres promotes the development and dissemination of innovative and local solutions, supports climate-energy policies and actions and encourages everyone to commit to Climate Solidarity by taking action and supporting vulnerable populations.

Geres has been working in Afghanistan since 2002. During its 16 years of presence in Afghanistan and within the field of energy, various sub-sectors have been covered:

Energy efficiency activities:

Energy Efficiency in Public Building (schools, clinics and health centers, administrative buildings);
Energy Efficiency in private housing;

Sustainable farming Development:

Insulated Greenhouses;
Post-harvest cellars;

Economic and entrepreneurship development:

Capacity building of small entrepreneurs;
Income generation activities;

Performance of several diagnostics and surveys in regards to the 3 above-mentioned fields.

Within the last decade, Geres has developed a comprehensive array of verified technologies and has reached out to thousands of beneficiaries. Geres has also trained more than a thousand local craftsmen in order to develop local capacities. For improving quality and developing local skills, Geres implements all its project in close collaboration with Afghan ministries (agriculture; health; education; environment; urban and rural development; and energy), national and international NGOs and local partners.

Geres completed a 4 years (2014 – 2018) rural development project (Central Highlands Program in Bamyan and Wardak Provinces) funded by AFD and implemented by a consortium 3 international NGOs, Geres as leader and MADERA and Solidarités International as partners.  Geres extended it intervention to urban context by implementing a regional project called AFG-TAJ, the project AFG- TAJ was implemented in 3 urban districts of Kabul city which was funded by AFD and Foundation Abbé Pierre.

The EU funded SWITCH Asia Sustainbable Consumption and Production project ‘Scaling up green homes in Kabul towards sustainable energy consumption and low emission development’ also called Kabul Green Homes Project (KGHP) is focusing on energy-saving market fostering – including value chain creation and strengthening of supply chains. The project in Kabul Province specifically aims at the dissemination of Passive Solar Houses (PSH) through market mechanism, training and support to micro-enterprises in order to improve private housing and living conditions of the populations during winter. At the same time, the development of PSH on a large scale allows reducing pressure on environment. Kabul Green Homes Project (KGHP) is being implemented by a consortium of 2 national and one international NGO. The intervention areas for KGHP are 15 districts of Kabul city (PDs 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,10,12,13,14,16,17 and 22), and some few dissemination of energy saving solutions out of coverage area.

Project duration is April 2016 till December 2020

The objectives of KGHP are:

ESSs are accessible and affordable to different segments of Kabul’s housing market, and produced by collectively organised and qualified SMEs endorsed and promoted by financial institutions;
Dialogue with national and international institutions of Central Asia contributes to a favourable environment for scaling up ESSs and replicating in similar contexts

The project is implemented by a team of 40 people including 24 project staff and 16 support staff.