The cooling sector’s technology and drive is said to be the key to sustainable development for Africa.
U-3ARC (Union of Associations of African Actors in Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) was created during the general assembly held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on September 24, 2020, by 30 associations of refrigeration and air conditioning actors from 29 African countries. U-3ARC represented more than 20 000 formal and informal businesses employing nearly 150 000 peoples at the date of its inauguration.
The objective of the body is to contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of the African continent on the one hand, and on the other hand to overcome the environmental challenges linked to the refrigeration and air conditioning sector. The international expert Madi Sakandé took the initiative to bring together all the players in the refrigeration and air conditioning sectors on the continent to achieve these.
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Their overall objectives and focus areas are further detailed as:
- Disseminating best practices in refrigeration
- Developing training programmes on refrigeration – in both formal and non-formal settings
- Hosting a register of refrigeration technicians, schools, institutes, and other actors in the refrigeration sector
- Stimulating access by African professionals to new technologies
- Fostering solidarity among refrigeration specialists, organising refresher, and upgrading courses for technicians
- Arranging cooperation with higher institutes providing training on refrigeration, developing cooperation relations with international refrigeration specialist networks
- Labelling refrigeration works and creations
- Promoting the participation of professionals to international fairs and forums, thus empowering African expertise
- Working towards improving the environment by encouraging the use of neutral substances and controlling greenhouse gas emissions
- Promoting energy efficiency
- Working towards promoting gender and women mobilisation for refrigeration and air conditioning business
- Supporting and adopting general interest international measures for the development of the sector
- Making sure that any event hosted by the Association is a crucial meeting place for the sector
- Supporting technical information and experience sharing as well as knowledge sharing among its members
- Encouraging and participating in joint projects related to the sector
Through the South African Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Contractors Association (SARACCA), South Africa became the 37th country to join the African body.
“U-3ARC is a dynamic association and has grown extremely fast to now be present in 46 countries in Africa. The body president, Madi Sakandé, is very passionate about the industry and sees the sector as a key focus point for economic growth while there is also realisation of the fact that there is a shortage of artisans to fill a growing need and so quality training has become critical. SARACCA therefore joined U-3ARC to assist with this training need and share our safe handling of refrigerants best practices – that has recently been finalised and formulated into a national training standard that is in the process of being rolled out locally. Further our support will include technology and technical expertise from South Africa, that in fact has some of the best refrigeration engineers and technicians in the world,” says Hennie Basson, president of SARACCA.
Should a SARACCA member win a contract in one of the U-3ARC member countries and need local support, then the associations open this door of assistance and is another significant value benefit of membership to bodies that engage on this level.
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Further updates and information from U3-ARC will be shared in future issues or our other HVACR media platforms.
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