Rural poverty is almost synonymous with energy poverty—without access to modern energy services, there is little opportunity for economic advancement. Access to modern clean energy allows for more productive end uses, job creation, longer productive hours, and cleaner water and sanitation, among other benefits. Presenters in this session shared their experiences from across Asia in the use of renewable energy technologies in specific end use applications, in households, and across development sectors.
Moderator: Olly Norojono, Director, Energy Division, Pacific Department, ADB
Presenters:
Attaining Universal Energy Access for Social Change: Evidence-Based Strategies to Achieve Economic and Social Transformation
Lana Zaman, Associate Economic Affairs Officer, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
This presentation drew on impact evaluations from the Asia-Pacific region to explore the demonstrated impacts of energy access on income, education, women’s empowerment, inequality, and poverty alleviation in real-life settings. It also discussed what made some access programs successful–not just in terms of achieving access–but also in terms of ensuring that access leads to tangible socio-economic benefits.
Social Enterprise Reducing Women’s Domestic Workloads and Providing Light in Sumba, Indonesia
Sarah Hobgen, Co-Founder, Sumba Sustainable Solutions
Local start-up Sumba Sustainable Solutions is partnering with rural women to reduce their domestic workload using solar-powered corn and rice mills in remote villages in Sumba, Indonesia. The mills are coupled with household Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) solar light and phone charger systems in a sustainable social business model currently servicing 2500 customers. This presentation focused on the experience of the PAYG mechanism and the impact on the society at large.
Tackling Inclusion and Scale to Reach the Last Mile for Rural Poverty Alleviation: Key Insights from Asian Examples in the PPEO 2018
Pooja Sharma, Energy Thematic Lead in the South Asia Office, Practical Action
This presentation discussed key insights from a detailed analysis of at-scale energy access programmes in India and Nepal from the Poor People’s Energy Outlook (PPEO) 2018. It highlighted contrasting approaches to programme design and propose a set of metrics to assess inclusiveness by gender, remoteness and poverty. In addition, it provided an overview of barriers which can limit the scale of delivery or prevent rural communities making the most of access to electricity.
Clean Cooking in Bangladesh: The Need to Better Engage Financing, Innovation, and Women in the Solution
Amit Jain, Senior Energy Specialist, World Bank
The World Bank, in partnership with Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL), has launched an Improved Cook Stoves (ICS) program in Bangladesh. This presentation focused on the role that women play in sensitization of the cooking related emissions issue, generating awareness and disseminating the solution. It will discussed how finance and technology innovation impact the adoption rates of large scale clean cookstove programs.
Going beyond Solar Home Systems
Venkat Rajaraman, CEO, Cygni Energy Pvt Ltd.
This presentation highlighted a 48V DC solar home system that can power appliances up to 500 watts. It also provided an overview of the firm's experience in taking such systems to the customers, the effect of monitoring and the opportunity to up-sell based on their need and the challenges with last-mile distribution through microfinance institutions.