Practical action helps change world

Groups that work with the marginalized are essential to solving problems like energy access for all

While government and private enterprises are crucial players in improving conditions in developing countries, the experience of one nongovernmental organization shows how civil society also has a large role in making such positive transformations.

Practical Action, a development nonprofit registered in the United Kingdom, works in Africa, Asia and Latin America. We have been able to draw on a wide variety of solutions from across the globe, such as borrowing from China's experience in improving rural life through cleaner and more efficient cookstoves to help improve conditions in Kenya.

That is just one example of how we help empower poor and vulnerable communities by providing them with access to technology that improves their lives, and secures the livelihoods of generations to come.

It focuses on three areas that are critical pillars in sustainable development. They include universal access to energy; food security, agriculture and disaster risk reduction; and access to urban services.

In all the programs we develop, and in the projects we implement, gender and social inclusion, climate change and market development are consistently embedded in the work.

Each of these three focuses strengthens and enables each other. We appreciate the power that energy has to strengthen food security and improve service provision, especially in rural areas and informal settlements, as well as to provide economic opportunities, directly and indirectly.

We help ensure equitable access to efficient and clean sources of energy, as well as promote effective service delivery at all levels. Doing so has positive social and economic impacts at the household level, the communal level, as well as the productive level, especially with small enterprises.

The Sustainable Energy for All Initiative, launched by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012, recognizes the critical and complementary role that civil society can play in delivering universal energy access.

This stance was reinforced at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development High Level Group meeting, where the secretary-general stressed the importance of civil society as the "third pillar", alongside government and the private sector, to achieve objectives.

Harnessed and mobilized effectively, the expertise and understanding of the environment where the most vulnerable live puts civil society groups at an important vantage point. These groups comprise a broad group of interested parties. They include cooperatives, foundations, trade unions, indigenous groups, academia, NGOs and community-based organizations.

They focus on securing energy access for all, particularly ensuring that the poorest and most marginalized communities are included in energy access. They also advocate for and support renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency.

Practical Action plays multiple roles in supporting the energy initiative, called SE4ALL for short. We are a communication partner of SE4ALL, and also play a role as observers to the High Level Group.

We co-authored the official Civil Society Roadmap for the SE4ALL Initiative. Civil society engagement with SE4ALL was previously not strategic or systematic.

The roadmap presents a tangible opportunity to help shape how civil society can engage here in Kenya, and provides a case study for implementation elsewhere.

We have managed specific events that include SE4ALL workshops and developed a national work plan for engaging with the government in Kenya and development partners.

We also are a member of the World Bank-led steering committee that put together the baseline report, and actively participate in developing standards for measuring the achievement of total energy access.

Because civil society groups engage with the most marginalized communities, and with women who are agents of sustainable development, the groups will play a pivotal role in achieving SE4ALL goals. The groups look beyond technical and social barriers to find effective alternative and low-cost energy solutions that challenge conventional approaches.

By working with communities who have no access to sustainable energy, the organizations can focus on decentralized household, community and enterprise systems as well as mini/micro grids, which commercial entities, businesses and governments may not consider viable.

In this case, support from government is critical: The public sector needs to champion the involvement and investment in the capacity of both civil society and the private sector as a prerequisite to achieving universal energy access.

Diana Ngaira is communications and knowledge Manager; Lydia Muchiri is program manager - Energy, at Practical Action Eastern Africa.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 03/20/2015 page9)