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National development plans focus upon energy and water separately, often not integrating the other sector’s resource use. This contributes to programme failures in the long run. Research is needed to inform and assist government in making the right decisions around renewable energies. A renewable energy project in Mozambique for instance, failed due to lack of spare parts which could not be manufactured locally; market demand was low, making the cost of production too high; the technologies had to be imported, rendering them unaffordable. This project looks at Integrated planning as a necessity in the context of Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho and Mozambique.