Energy poverty alleviation: a perspective from Africa’s scientists

A few facts about energy access and electricity production in Africa:

* About 70% of Africans have no access to electricity.

* The entire electric capacity of sub-Saharan Africa is 68% that of Spain.

* South Africa’s electricity generation accounts for more than half of all SSA capacity.

* Commercial users register power outages over 50 times a year, whereas the US standard is one day in ten years.

* 80% of the African continent still relies on biomass as cooking fuel.

African scientists issue policy recommendations to increase access and generation of electricity

Often missing from ambitious global campaigns that are designed to benefit the poor is the voice of the poor themselves.

We’re talking about energy poverty, in this case, and the voice we haven’t heard from much are the very same people who lack access to modern energy. What do they think?

We asked volunteer reporter Sara Cornish to find out what Africa’s leading scientists think about the focus on energy poverty alleviation. Here’s what she found out:

By Sara Cornish

Should policymakers advocate for the addition of a development goal that specifically addresses energy poverty? This was the central question asked at the African Science Academy Development Initiative’s sixth annual meeting in November 2010. Meeting in South Africa, the presidents of ten African countries’ academies of science gathered to discuss policy guidance that would  increase government attention to issues of energy access and sustainability. The findings are contained in a report titled: Turning Science On: Improving Access to Energy in Sub-Saharan Africa

Highlights

Based on the high levels of poverty closely correlated with access to clean and affordable fuel, several goals were outlined by the panel.

1. “Unlocking” the regulatory barriers the private sector maintains to allow for public investment, instead of keeping control in the hands of private companies
2. Extending the national electricity grid and installing more mini grids for rural communities
3. Improving fuel cookstoves, both in technological quality and affordability
4. Exploring sustainable methods of fuelwood production[1]

This lack of access to clean energy increases health risks and maintains a dependence on fuelwood harvested from surrounding land. As measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), a composite indicator that measures a country’s achievements in terms of health (life expectancy), knowledge (adult literacy and school enrollment), and standard of living (GDP), there is a strong correlation between both electricity access and low maternal mortality with a high HDI. Because of this close relationship, an Energy Development Index (EDI) has been created to track energy poverty specifically, and as a tool to clearly illustrate comparative data to policymakers.

In Conclusion:

In order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, endorsed in 2000 by the UN, energy access must be seriously considered.

 

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[1] Community-based woodfuel production (CBWP) has proven successful in Madagascar, Mali, Niger and Senegal. CBWP decentralizes forest management from government control to local communities, allowing them to sustainably maintain their forests which both increases stock and provides the opportunity to earn revenue from all forest products, not just wood.