On April 28, 2022, Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) organised its last in-person event of the REELIH Project, which is approaching its end on August 30, 2022.

The REELIH Impact Workshop, titled "Sectorial approach to scale up residential energy efficiency in Central and Eastern Europe" and organised by HFHI, took place in Falkensteiner Hotel in Bratislava, Slovakia and included various speakers, panelists, and participants from different countries.

Andrew Popelka, Senior Energy Advisor at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), who partnered with HFHI and the local implementing partners - Habitat for Humanity Macedonia, Habitat for Humanity Armenia, and ENOVA (Bosnia and Herzegovina), opened the workshop with Zita Kakalejcikova, Manager of Residential Energy Projects at HFHI early in the morning.

Program of the day

REELIH team prepared a set of three sessions with refreshing breaks to keep participants fully engaged. The first session tackled financing models for residential energy efficiency by introducing good practices and discussing existing bottlenecks. This session, moderated by Elena Milanovska, Associate Director of Capital Markets & Financial Inclusion at HFHI EME and Africa Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, included speakers such as:

• Dragomir Tzanev, Executive Director, EnEffect, Bulgaria,
• Liljana Alceva, Deputy Director – Program, HFH Macedonia,
• Iulia Pushko, Operations Officer, Energy Efficiency for Ukraine Program, IFC Europe and Central Asia, and
• Andrew Popelka, Senior Energy Advisor, Energy and Infrastructure Division, Bureau for Europe and Eurasia, United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The next session discussed how National Building Renovation Strategies impact the renovation of the multi-apartment buildings. Moderated by Kestutis Kupsys, Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and Vice-president of Lithuanian Consumers Alliance (LVOA-ALCO), the session provided experience from multiple countries from the region of Central and Eastern Europe and Western Balkans, such as North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, and Lithuania in developing National Building Renovation Strategies and the successes and failures in its implementation. The speakers were:

• Bulgaria: Mincho Benov, National Director, HFH Bulgaria,
• North Macedonia: Liljana Alceva, Deputy Director – Program, HFH Macedonia & Katerina Bilbiloska, Energy department, Ministry of Economy,
• Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia: Inga Rovbutas, Project Director, Housing Initiative for Eastern Europe (IWO), and
• Slovakia: Veronika Rehakova, Director DG Housing Policy, Construction and Urban Development, Ministry of Transport and Construction of the Slovak Republic.

The last session of the REELIH Impact Workshop was a bit more interactive as it asked participants to split into three breakout sessions. This allowed the participants to learn about good practices from the three implementing countries of the REELIH project, namely Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia in an original setting, through story-telling of project contributors from the three implementing countries.

• Armenia: Varsenik Khloyan, Project Manager, Residential Buildings, HFH Armenia,
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Petar Tasic, Consultant in Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Sources, ENOVA, Bosnia and Hercegovina, and
• North Macedonia: Liljana Alceva, Deputy Director – Program, HFH Macedonia.

This in-person meeting was a great refreshment after all the online meetings and gatherings this group of people had attended over the last two years. Even though the REELIH project is ending, we hope this group of experts will continue the established practices and meetings and secure a continuation of REELIH's core aim and mission.

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