A quarter of humanity still lacks access to electricity. 2.4 billion people use biomass – wood, dung and crop waste – for their basic energy need, cooking. Market-driven and supply-led approaches to providing energy are failing to reach poor people. Political will is required to ensure that modern renewable energy technologies expand the energy choices available to the millions of people living without electricity or clean fuels.

A report from the Intermediate Technology Development Group, recently renamed Practical Action urges the international community to make appropriate, affordable and decentralised energy services available to poor people. Relatively small investments are needed to produce or improve technologies that are within the reach of low-income communities.

The researchers assert that energy is crucial for improving health and reducing death rates. Energy is required for refrigeration of vaccines and electric equipment for maternity services. The world’s greatest child killer, acute lower respiratory infection, will not be lowered unless exposure to smoke from cooking fires in the home can be reduced.  Children cannot study well at night without home lighting. Water is not easily pumped or treated without energy.

Many home-based enterprises, such as beer brewing or street foods production increase a family’s dependence on biofuels and exposure to smoke. The incomes of many small producers who rely on energy are under threat because of inefficient production methods and diminishing natural fuel resources.

Centralised energy schemes are failing to reach poor people. Transmission grids from conventional power plants often bypass rural communities. Management of large hydro projects is dominated by foreign contractors and low-income majorities in developing countries see few, if any, benefits from them.

ITDG/ Practical Action has been involved in several initiatives which show how approaches that rely on community participation can develop locally appropriate sustainable solutions at modest cost:

• Displaced people in Kassala, Sudan identified liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as an appropriate solution, once micro-finance was made available to cover the initial cost of the stove.
• In a cold mountain village in Nepal, home insulation has been chosen as a method of retaining room heat, reducing the need to burn fuel wood for heating.
• In the Kenyan town of Kisumu – where wood fuel is much cheaper than LPG so households choose to continue using biomass – smoke hoods and eaves spaces, along with fuel-efficient stoves are proving effective.
• Community-run hydropower schemes are serving households in remote communities on the slopes of Mount Kenya, providing household lighting, radio and boosting incomes.
• In Peru, ITDG/Practical Action has helped to establish a revolving loan fund, along with technical assistance on constructing micro-hydropower schemes in isolated rural areas.

ITDG/Practical Action calls for energy policies that favour poor people, which:

• emphasise energy provision to public services like remote health centres, schools and for water supply
• do not assume that renewable technologies mean western technologies – photovoltaic cells or high efficiency wind or hydro turbines are expensive and can tie poor countries into a dependency culture
• provide aid support to sustainable energy options for poor people and improve targeting of subsidies
• increase local and national capacity for sustainable energy and make use of and develop local manufacturing and technical capability
• encourage private sector partnerships to target poor people
• share knowledge on innovative technologies like solar water heaters, waste-to-energy and biogas.

The Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty will not be achieved without improved energy services to increase production and income, create jobs and reduce drudgery. Failure to take advantage of available opportunities will further marginalise the world’s poorest people from the benefits of energy technology and put further pressure on the planet’s dwindling resources.

Contributor(s): Alison Doig

Source(s):
‘Powering Poverty Reduction’ ITDG/Practical Action position paper for Renewables 2004, Intermediate Technology Development Group, by Alison Doig, June 2004 More information.

id21 Research Highlight: 28 July 2005

Further Information:
Amanda Ross
Practical Action/ITDG
The Schumacher Centre for Technology and Development
Bourton Hall
Bourton-on-Dunsmore
Rugby
Warwickshire CV23 9QZ
UK

Tel: +44 (0) 926 634400
Fax: +44 (0) 1926 634401
Contact the contributor: practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk

Practical Action/ITDG, UK

Other related links:
'Community electricity schemes in Sri Lanka: the GATS threat'

'What energy systems are appropriate for poor villagers?'

'Assessing the impacts of energy projects on rural communities'

'Identifying energy needs for development – applying a participatory approach to energy planning'

'Can partnerships deliver electricity to boost the livelihoods of the rural poor?'