Africa-Asia Just Energy Transition Fellows

One global energy transition. Thousands of local realities.

The Africa–Asia Energy Transition Governance Fellowship brings together graduate students, practitioners, university faculty, government officials, energy professionals, and community partners to address the governance challenges surrounding the clean energy transition.

Fellows work in cross-country teams anchored in university-hosted Sustainable Energy Lab hubs. Each team investigates a locally defined energy challenge, learns from comparable experiences across Africa and Asia, and develops practical policies, projects, or institutional reforms.

By 2030, the Fellowship aims to engage approximately 2,000 fellows through 200 university-city hubs, with 500 new fellows joining the network each year.

Why this Fellowship matters

Renewable energy costs continue to fall, but the transition remains uneven. Communities experience energy poverty, unreliable grids, climate disruptions, rising demand, limited storage capacity, and institutional fragmentation in very different ways.

An off-grid community in the Philippines, a fast-growing city in West Africa, and an energy-vulnerable municipality in Bangladesh may face related pressures, but each operates within a different mix of infrastructure, institutions, markets, and community relationships.

Global research can help anticipate major trends. Local inquiry determines what can work in a particular place.

The Fellowship creates a space where participants can compare these realities without assuming that one model fits every country or community.

Knowledge from many positions

Energy transition knowledge has often emerged from countries with mature grids, strong utilities, larger public budgets, and extensive technical capacity. These perspectives remain valuable, but they do not fully represent the conditions found across Africa and Asia.

Important realities can remain overlooked:

• Off-grid and informal energy systems

• Limited municipal and utility budgets

• Shortages of engineering and planning personnel

• Fragmented energy access data

• Large rural populations and informal economies

• Different energy mixes and grid structures

• Community risks that formal datasets do not capture

The Fellowship supports knowledge production from multiple positions. Grid engineers, public officials, researchers, community members, utilities, social enterprises, and residents each see a different part of the energy system. Connecting these perspectives expands the range of problems, relationships, and possible responses that fellows can recognize.

The university as a local energy governance hub

Participating universities serve as long-term platforms for collaboration between research institutions, cities, communities, utilities, businesses, and national agencies.

Each university-hosted Sustainable Energy Lab hub performs three core functions:

Convene

Bring together people who experience the same energy challenge from different institutional and community positions.

Make sense

Combine lived experience, professional knowledge, energy and grid data, and applied research to develop a fuller understanding of the problem.

Collaborate

Undertake joint action research, test renewable energy and governance interventions, and revise proposed solutions as new evidence emerges.

How the Fellowship works

1. Local problem identification

University-city teams identify a specific energy transition governance challenge in their locality. Challenges may involve energy access, grid reliability, renewable energy adoption, local energy planning, financing, climate resilience, or coordination among institutions.

2. Cross-country team formation

Fellows connect with peers working on comparable challenges in other African and Asian countries. A project team might include participants from the Philippines, Nepal, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, or other participating countries.

3. Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation

Teams use Problem Driven Iterative Adaptation, or PDIA, to examine the local problem, identify the actors and systems involved, test feasible actions, and learn through repeated cycles of implementation.

4. Stakeholder co-creation

Fellows engage government agencies, utilities, communities, universities, businesses, and civil society organizations in the research and design process.

5. Applied project development

Each team develops an action research project that may lead to a policy proposal, institutional reform, renewable energy initiative, financing mechanism, planning tool, or locally tested intervention.

6. Africa–Asia knowledge exchange

Teams share evidence, compare experiences, and learn from advisers and practitioners across the network. Local findings also contribute to a wider body of knowledge on energy transition governance.

7. Public presentation

Fellows present their work through university forums, policy dialogues, regional conferences, and energy sector events.

Possible Fellowship tracks

Tracks will respond to the priorities of participating universities, cities, and countries. Possible areas include:

• Just energy transition governance

• Rural and off-grid electrification

• Renewable energy for cities and municipalities

• Grid resilience and energy security

• Productive use of renewable energy

• Energy access and social inclusion

• Climate finance and transition finance

• Community energy systems

• Renewable energy policy and regulation

• Energy transition leadership and institutional reform

What Fellows produce

Depending on the selected track and local challenge, Fellowship teams may develop:

• Energy transition policy proposals

• Local energy governance roadmaps

• Applied research and case studies

• Renewable energy project concepts

• Institutional coordination mechanisms

• Community engagement strategies

• Financing and investment proposals

• Decision tools and governance frameworks

• Pilot interventions ready for further testing

• Conference presentations and knowledge products

Who should join

The Fellowship welcomes:

• Graduate students and early-career researchers

• University faculty and research teams

• City and municipal government officials

• Energy and utility professionals

• Public administrators and policy practitioners

• Engineers, planners, and climate professionals

• Civil society and community leaders

• Social entrepreneurs and renewable energy innovators

Universities may participate by establishing a Sustainable Energy Lab hub and forming interdisciplinary teams with local government and community partners.

The network

The Fellowship connects action at several levels:

• Local communities contribute lived experience and define the practical realities of energy access.

• Fellows and practitioners investigate problems and test responses.

• University-city hubs sustain local collaboration and institutional learning.

• The Africa–Asia network enables comparison and joint knowledge production.

• Global research and multilateral networks connect local work with international evidence and policy discussions.

No single level holds the complete picture. The network creates value by connecting them.

Fellowship proponents

Sustainable Energy Lab

The Sustainable Energy Lab of the Asian School of Governance incubates projects that advance the clean energy transition within universities, cities, and their surrounding bioregions.

Asian School of Governance

The Asian School of Governance works with universities, public institutions, and practitioners to co-create learning and governance solutions for complex development challenges.

Adaptive Leadership International

Adaptive Leadership International supports leaders and institutions confronting complex challenges that require changes in relationships, behavior, authority, and established ways of working.

Become part of the Fellowship

Universities, cities, advisers, and institutional partners are invited to help establish Fellowship tracks and university-hosted Sustainable Energy Lab hubs.

Interested participants and partners may:

• Nominate a university or city team

• Propose an energy transition challenge

• Serve as a track adviser or mentor

• Host a Sustainable Energy Lab hub

• Support a country or regional cohort

• Join an upcoming Fellowship information session

Call to action:
Register your interest in the Africa–Asia Energy Transition Governance Fellowship