Energy Access Series 2019

Access Coalition Webinar Series

During the last past months, the ACCESS Coalition found out the need to start mobilizing best practices and sharing relevant knowledge among the ACCESS members. For this, the ACCESS learning group (composed by Practical Action, energypedia, GERES, IIED and the Wuppertal institute) wants to initiate a series of Smart-Webinars, starting with productive use of energy as this is a highly relevant topic for the ACCESS Coalition.

1st Webinar

Energy Access: the role of civil society in the area of productive uses.

This webinar will focus on the productive uses of energy (PUE) and the role of Civil Society Organizations in promoting PUE. Two case studies will highlight experiences from Kenya: Practical Action will focus on milling and ice-making for making a mini-grid viable and Rainforest Alliance will present their experiences of promoting local briquettes manufacturing in tea industries. The webinar will also include a presentation from ACCESS Coalition about its strategy for 2019-2021.

This webinar is the first in a series of webinars that targets knowledge sharing from CSOs operating in energy access for other CSOs and beyond.

Presentation

• Download the presentation

Additional Resources

• Publication: Ice-Making as a Productive Application in Green Mini-Grid Systems
  
• Publication: Milling as a Productive Application in Green Mini-Grid Systems
  
• Productive Use information portal on energypedia

Q&A

• Q&A during the webinar

Speakers

		Emma Colenbrander, Practical Action Emma is the senior energy markets adviser and head of the Global Distributors Collective at Practical Action. She has worked with a number of minigrid companies to drive productive uses of energy with the Green Mini Grid (GMG) Facility in Kenya. She is a Trustee at Ashden and a co-founder of Pollinate Energy, a multi-award winning social enterprise in India that brings clean energy products to urban slum communities. Emma has also worked with the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), focusing on development finance and innovation
		Jacqueline Kimeu, ACCESS Coalition Jacqueline is the coordinator for the ACCESS Coalition (Alliance of CSOs for Clean Energy Access). She has more than seven years of experience in designing and implementing energy projects and programmes. She is also experienced in enabling strategic partnerships in Kenya and beyond aimed at strengthening the uptake of renewable energy technologies and policy influence around energy planning and delivery.
		Shadrack Kiprono Kirui, Rain Forest Alliance Shadrack is the Programme Manager for Renewable Energy at the Rainforest Alliance. He has worked in energy access projects in various institutions, focusing on productive uses of energy, energy efficiency, energy financing as well as enabling policies for renewable energy adoption. Shadrack is a Certified Energy Manager under the US Association of Energy Engineers. He has worked with United Nation Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) where he implemented a micro-grid power project in an irrigation scheme.
		Dr. Julia Terrapon-Pfaff, Wuppertal Institute Dr. Julia Terrapon-Pfaff is a project coordinator at the Wuppertal Institute, where she works in national and international research projects. She graduated from the University of Trier in 2008, where she studied geography, strategic management and public law. In her doctoral thesis (2014) she focused on the process of strategic decision-making in the context of the Energy-Agricultural Nexus from a multi-objective perspective. Julia’s primary research areas are renewable energy solutions for developing and emerging countries. She has expertise in the fields of impact evaluations and decision analysis and experience in working with international partners and local stakeholders in Asia as well as North- and East Africa.

2nd Webinar

Impact of COVID-19 on Energy Access Organizations - Survey Results.
ACCESS Learning Group and the Secretariat conducted an online survey for its members spread across 18 countries globally. The survey aimed at assessing the coping mechanisms for CSOs during COVID-19 and how best CSOs could continue playing their advocacy role. A total of 24 organizations working globally responded to the survey. The survey showed that CSOs currently have two imperatives: protecting their personnel in contact with the population and guaranteeing work continuity. Another glaring challenge was the lack of finance and the existing inequalities in funding - a lot of funding is geared towards the ‘big’ organisations while leaving grassroots CSOs and SMEs out of the picture. This webinar will share the results of the survey with a focus on available funding opportunities; how to address the existing inequalities; and what strategies CSOs at the community level should employ to access these funds.

Additional Resources

• list of resources such as funding opportunities, tools and training courses

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Organizers

ACCESS is a global coalition of 65 CSOs and practitioners whose mission is to advocate for people living in poverty to have access to safe, reliable and affordable energy, and for environmentally sustainable and efficient energy systems globally.  Most ACCESS members are practitioners and civil society groups based in sub-Saharan Africa, in countries with high levels of energy poverty. Although Sub-Sahara is the main priority area for ACCESS, some of ACCESS members also operate in Asia and Latin America.