The purpose of this meeting is to provide a training and skills development workshop on how to scale up the use of renewable energy in rural areas of ESCWA region, in particular, and the Arab region in general, in order to achieve climate change mitigation and poverty alleviation in the respective countries. 

The Workshop will focus on the following topics:  

a.  The barriers and challenges facing scaling up the use of renewable energy in rural areas;

b.  The importance of using renewable energy sources to enhance energy security and improve energy access; 

c.  The ways to finance renewable energy projects;

d.  The policies and programs needed to put in place a financial mechanism and/or fund for scaling up renewable energy projects; 

e.  The policies and programs needed to encourage and motivate the private sector to invest in renewable energy in a public-private partnership.