TEA-LP attends Humanitarian Energy Access Workshop in London
By Whitney Pailman, 26 September 2022
I had the opportunity to attend the Transforming Energy Access (TEA) wide collaborative workshop on Humanitarian Energy Mainstreaming: Collaborative Action and Inclusive Responses, held at the Ashden head offices in London on 9 September 2022. The workshop hosted by the Global Platform for Action (GPA) on Sustainable Energy in Displacement (housed at UNITAR), in collaboration with the Global Refugee-Led Network, Ashden and Chatham House, placed a spotlight on humanitarian energy access – an area where there is a critical need for affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy access.
The GPA State of the Humanitarian Energy Sector 2022 Report, concerningly estimates that 94% of displaced people living in refugee camps do not have access to electricity, while 81% rely on firewood and charcoal for cooking. This has significant adverse health impacts, particularly respiratory illnesses due household indoor air pollution as well as adverse environmental impacts. Within all living contexts, a lack of access to essential basic services, like clean and affordable energy, considerably constrains quality of life and economic participation. Against this backdrop, the workshop drew insights from a range of experts within the TEA partner network and those actively working in the humanitarian energy sector, to critically engage with the topic of humanitarian energy access and mainstream action within the TEA programme.
The workshop was opened by Ashden CEO Harriet Lamb, and Thomas Fohgrub, Strategic Lead for the GPA coordination unit at UNITAR, with a special address by Andrew Harper from UNHCR, to set the context of sustainable energy in displacement settings. Here Harper highlighted that the humanitarian energy sector needs to be a central part of the development sector and that when energy is provided in humanitarian contexts, it needs to be sustainable and fit within the overall national and community plans in existence.
The first session included an engaging panel discussion on Transforming the Paradigm on Humanitarian Action on SDG 7, with panelists from Chatham House, Ashden, the Global Refugee Led Network and GPA. Among the panelists, Shaza Alrihawi, Chairwoman of the Global Refugee Led Network, an organisation advocating for greater self-representation of refugees in global decision making, emphasised the importance of placing people living displacement settings at the centre of decision making and the design of energy access solutions. This necessitates a shift to proactively and meaningfully including people in displacement contexts in decision-making areas and providing the resources and opportunities to co-design and co-evaluate energy access solutions that are affordable, suitable and provides sufficient energy supply.
The panel discussion further highlighted the need for innovative financing models and leveraging climate finance to provide energy access solutions in settings of displacement. One of the points raised was on power dynamics related to funding and the need for avenues of direct funding for entrepreneurs and local businesses based in refugee camps and other settings of displacement. While acknowledging the efforts and work already done in this space, the panel was of the view that more could be done from a research perspective and understanding where the data gaps can be filled, from a human resourcing and capacity perspective and in testing business models and innovations.
The workshop also showcased Kakuma Ventures a platform enabling refugees to become entrepreneurs, founded by Innocent Tshilombo. Kakuma ventures aims to build and support businesses providing healthy food, clean water, healthcare, education, shelter, and clothing. Particularly Kakuma ventures have rolled out Wi-Fi in the settlement.
The afternoon included a breakaway session which focused on mainstreaming humanitarian access within the TEA programme. Examples of work within the broader TEA partnership included Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) at the University of Loughborough, who in collaboration with GIZ and UNHRC piloted electric a roll out of pressure cookers in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, with a focus on making electric cooking more cost competitive and efficient, and facilitating transitions to electric cooking.
Turning to the Transforming Energy Access Learning Partnership, the workshop sessions reaffirmed the importance of designing inclusive energy access education to facilitate the global imperative of ‘leaving no-one behind’. Within the TEA-LP scale-up the continuing professional development (CPD) courses in particular have been designed have a wide reach, by being offered online to reach students in rural, remote or displaced settings.
