Front Row, Left to Right: Samuel Baire, Director General Department of Energy, Ministry of Energy and Mines; Merv Tano; Yoseph Admekom, Programme Specialist, United Nations Development Program; Tim Top Row, Left to Right: Bill McCabe, Director Native American Programs and Services, Distributed Generation Systems, Inc. (Disgen); Abiy Ghebremedhin, Project Manager, Eritrean Wind Project; Krista Gordon, Manager of Engineering, Disgen; Debassai Ghebrehiwet,  Director, Energy Research & Training Center; Abraham Woldemichael, General Manager, Eritrean Electric Corporation; Dale Osborn, President, Disgen.

Denver, January 21, 2005. A delegation of energy experts and officials from Eritrea and their advisors dropped in to the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management offices to brief Institute staff on the wind and other renwable energy projects Eritrea is undertaking with the aid of the UNDP. The meeting was arranged by Bill McCabe, the Director of Native American Programs of Distributed Generation Systems and a former colleague of Merv Tano at the Council of Energy Resource Tribes. Bill was aware of the Institute's work on participatory decision-making for development projects and thought the Eritrean officials find our perspectives useful Distributed Generation Systems is a full service (everything from site selection to construction) developer of wind generation projects. The company, headed by Dale W. Osborn, has been active in Indian country for several years now.

About the size of Pennsylvania, Eritrea was colonized by Italy in the late 19th century. Italian rule was ended in 1941 when the British defeated the Italian army during World War II and established a protectorate. In 1952 the United Nations resolved to establish it as an autonomous entity federated with Ethiopia as a compromise between Ethiopian claims for sovereignty and Eritrean aspirations for independence. However, 10 years later the Ethiopian emperor, Haile Selassie, annexed Eritrea thereby preciptating a 32-year-long and still largely unresolved armed struggle.

Although Eritrea is poorly endowed with proven hydrocarbon deposits and hydroelectric potential, it is believe to be endowed with great potential for wind and geothermal energy development Some of the expected benefits of the UNDP project include: (a) the provision of clean water supply by wind pumps to the community; (b) reduction in usage of fossil fuels; (c) lowering of the dependence on oil imports; (d) probable lowering of the overall electricity generation costs in the self contained systems.

The discussions at the Institute office centered on the philosophical and political underpinnings of the Institute's workshops, internships, and roundtables. The Eritrean team was especially interested in knowing more about the participatory nature of our education programs. Our sense is that education and training programs should be initially designed for and directed toward the users of the technology and especially toward the political and religious leaders of villages and tribes since the technology will almost certainly have an impact on the migration patterns of the nomadic peoples of the country; on agriculture; and on urbanization.