A participatory approach will be adopted at all stages of the project development. It will be constituted in the identification of stakeholders, individual discussions and collaboration with local authorities. Consultations, thematic meetings, workshops, discussions and focus-groups will be conducted by COPA-SL, and others will be planned for finalization of the socio-economic study. The first local consultation for the socio-economic study will take place in February, 2014. It will be followed by a prospective workshop March, 2014 and a third workshop in September 2014. Various stakeholders will be consulted, including social and economic stakeholders, local administrative and elected authorities, traditional representatives of the local communities, as well as associations (such as women's associations). The consultations will help to inform local communities of the project impacts and address the concerns of certain groups. High expectations will be expressed, mainly about local employment, the importance of youth involvement in training opportunities, support for local development in terms of services and the effects on the local economy, and the need for regular communication between project representatives and local stakeholders.

The activities of the project will be divided into two phases. Phase one will include publicity, sensitization and awareness raising programmes on the importance of electricity especially renewable energy and organize community groups to keep sensitizing citizens. The second phase will focus on field training on the use of the solar panels. The objective for doing this is to have a well-planned intervention strategy and ensure that knowledge is managed and consolidated at all cost. Indicators for the successful completion of project activities shall include a total of 20 community drivers trained, made knowledgeable in the roles and functions of solar renewable energy. Specific steps to be taken to ensure knowledge management is the production of user manuals and the physical demonstration and planting exercises that will be conducted during phase two of the project cycle.This will have been followed with sufficient sensitization meetings and awareness raising meetings and campaigns. Training manuals/pamphlets that have been prepared already will be multiplied for the 20 participants. This training will take place in the first (1st), second (2nd) and third (3rd) week of March 2014. Participants will be selected taking into consideration the gender dimension of the direct and indirect beneficiaries. Two days will be devoted for the training in each of the communities/villages.