Capacity Building & Information Sharing - Regional Energy Regulators Association of Southern Africa

Consumer Protection and Communication Services

Mandate of the Portfolio Committee on Portfolio Committee on Capacity Building and Information Sharing (PC-CBIS)

Mandate

Article 7.4 of the RERA Constitution states, among other things, that there shall be Portfolio Committees constituted by the Portfolio Committees’ Chairpersons which shall execute the objectives and functions of RERA as outlined more fully in Articles 4 and 5. Thus, RERA has four (4) Portfolio Committees, one of which is the Portfolio Committee on Capacity Building and Information Sharing (PC-CBIS) and is organised as shown below.

Objective

The objective of the Consumer Services and Communication Subcommittee (CSCS) is to strengthen the regional regulatory framework in so far as consumer services and communication issues are concerned. The objective of the Human Resource Management Subcommittee is to examine and analyse the status of human capital interventions of RERA members with the view to identify commonalities, divergent practises, trends and other aspects that could hamper the effective utilisation, and development of the energy sector at national and regional level.

The broad mandate of the PC-CBIS as in Article 4 of the RERA Constitution is to:

Facilitate electricity regulatory capacity-building among Members at both a national and regional level through information sharing and skills training.

Reporting to the PC-CBIS are the following two (2) Subcommittees:

The Human Resource Management Subcommittee (HRMS) with the following main objective:

To examine and analyse the status of human capital interventions of RERA members with the view to identify commonalities, divergent practises, trends and other aspects that could hamper the effective utilisation, and development of the energy sector at national and regional level.

Information, Communication Technology and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee (ICTAIS) with the following main objective:

To enhance the role of Information, Communication Technology and Artificial Intelligence (ICTAI) in fostering innovation, harmonizing ICTAI frameworks, and strengthening regulatory cooperation across the RERA member countries.

Some of the functions of RERA in Article 5 of the RERA Constitution that have some bearing on the mandate of the PC-CBIS include the following:

Monitor and evaluate electricity regulatory practices among Members to determine regional training needs;

Develop, conduct or manage information and capacity-building programmes; and

Source funding for the implementation of programmes and projects.