1. Rationale
The importance of energy access in combating poverty and meeting the Millennium
Development Goals has been increasingly recognised in the last decade. Detailed
studies1 have shown how meeting the MDGs is contingent on an increase in
access to energy as summarised in the table below:
Table 1: Energy services contribution to MDGs.1
MDG
To halve extreme
poverty
To reduce hunger and
improve access to safe
drinking water
To reduce child and
maternal mortality; and
to reduce diseases
To achieve universal
primary education; and
to promote gender
equality and
empowerment of
women
Environmental
sustainability
Energy Services Contribution
Access to energy services facilitates economic
development - micro-enterprise, livelihood activities
beyond daylight hours, locally owned businesses, which
will create employment - and assists in bridging the
‘digital divide’.
Energy services can improve access to pumped drinking
water and 95% of staple foods need cooking before they
can be eaten. Irrigation, aided by energy access, can
increase local food production. Energy installations that
pump water in drought prone areas can increase the
resilience of livestock.
Energy is a key component of a functioning health
system, for example, lighting health centers,
refrigeration of vaccines and other medicines,
sterilization of equipment and transport to health clinics.
Improved lighting and cooking units can significantly
reduce the incidence of respiratory diseases: a major
killer of under fives in Africa. Improved access to energy
increases the retention of health workers in remote
areas.
Energy services reduce the time spent by women and
children (especially girls) on basic survival activities
(gathering firewood, fetching water, cooking, etc.);
lighting permits home study, increases security and
enables the use of educational media and
communications in schools, including information and
communication technologies (ICTs).
Improved energy efficiency and use of cleaner
alternatives can help to achieve sustainable use of
natural resources, as well as reducing emissions, which
protects the local and global environment.
Lack of energy access is a form of poverty, but it also contributes to perpetuating
the cycle of poverty. Lack of access to modern and convenient forms of energy in
particular reduces people’s ability to work themselves out of poverty via income
generating activities, many of which are based on energy. Poor and polluting
energy services create health problems which undermine productivity and strain
household resources. The poor often pay a ‘poverty penalty’ effectively paying
more for energy services than more wealthy consumers.
Renewable Energy to Reduce Poverty in Africa
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