Consolidation and Expansion of innovative RET promotion and dissmination approaches for outreach to the vulnerable population (NEP/OP3/2/06/17)
Project Details & Results
The South Asia region has seen an increasing adoption of renewable energy technology in recent years. Despite of that increase, not much success has been achieved in reaching out to the poorest and most vulnerable people. There exist inherent financial barriers as a result of poverty such that even where the conditions and Government policies are conducive (e.g. giving out subsidies), the poor have not benefited from these initiatives. Conventional approaches for promoting renewable energy technologies make it hard for development agencies and Governments to reach all those who require energy services.
Providing energy services is one clear way of addressing the environmental problems and improving livelihoods of the poor communities. As a result of this recognition, the project has aimed to expanc and consolidate two innovative approaches to break the financial barriers for reaching out to poor. These approaches were tested in three villages through part-support from the GEF Small Grants Programme, Nepal. The two approaches have proved to be very effective in promoting renewable energy technologies and also reaching out to the poor despite the many financial challenges facing them. They are
• Home Employment and Lighting Package™ (HELP)
• Solar Sisters™ overseas volunteer program
The Home Employment and Lighting Package™ (HELP) was expanded to Sri Lanka, while the Solar Sisters™ overseas volunteer program was introduced in India through this program. Beside expansion in Sri Lanka and India, the two approaches were consolidated and expanded in Nepal.
Details of the two approaches:
a) Home Employment and Lighting Package™ (HELP):
This approach was primarily developed to break the financial barriers for promoting renewable energy technologies to the poorest of communities after it was realised that even in situations where the Nepal Government gave subsidies for Renewable Energies (RE), the poorest could not access them because of their inability to raise the balance of the financial resources required.
HELP program’s objective is to provide solar electric system by use of social capital as collateral to rural poor communities who do not have capital or financial assets. Because of general lack of financial capital, the poor cannot have access to rural credit systems. Among the projects benefiting from the approaches tested in Nepal is the Solar Village Electrification Demonstration Project (SOVED). The project was developed and implemented by Himalayan Light Foundation in Bongadovan Village Development Committee (VDC) of Baglung District. This project was supported and funded by United Nation Development Program/Global Environment Facilities Small Grants Program (UNDP/GEF-SGP) and co-funded from GoN/Alternate Energy Promotion Centre. The project has also received support from the District Development Committee (DDC) of Baglung and Bongadovan VDC. There was a mutual collaboration with the District Development Committee aimed at sustaining the activities and providing the needed support for the implementation of project. The program concentrated in the promotion of solar lighting, other renewable energy technologies, community development activities, and local human resource development.
b) Solar Sisters Programme:
This is the second innovative approach developed to break the financial barriers of promoting renewable energy technologies for social (public) amenities in remote and poor populations. The objective of the solar sisters program is to offer solar energy to communities who could not afford electrical systems. The Solar Sisters™ Program is a simple and effective way to distribute community-controlled solar systems to rural communities through communally used facilities such as schools, health centres, monasteries, orphanages etc. It provides the international volunteer with a responsible and remarkable alternative to tourism experience of exploring places in the world while contributing in development.
It provides an opportunity for the poor communities and the international volunteers to forge partnerships in protecting the environment while reducing poverty. It allows the development of close relationships for diverse cultures. It also creates an opportunity for international volunteers to forge partnerships with village residents and to learn about practical applications of solar electricity. This enables tourism to aid poverty reduction activities through RET promotion.
The two approaches were the main themes of expansion to Sri Lanka and India. Whereas solar lighting was the technology mostly promoted in Nepal, other renewable energy technologies can apply the same approaches.
Notable Community Participation
From the very beginning of the project, local level Solar Development Committees have been formed, who are responsible in selecting the solar beneficiaries.
Capacity - Building Component
The capacity building components include paper production and marketing in Srilanka, regional workshop on RET where participatns from India, Srilanka and Nepal participated and micro finance training.
Emphasis on Sustainable Livelihoods
The program brings in new sustainable revenue streams to community members by taking advantage of their non-cash economies and turning local skills to commercial production of products. The RETs though used mainly for lighting, provides extra hours of light and provides an opportunity for flow of information from the mass media. The provision of energy services to the public community centers will support education, information, health centers and monasteries presenting the community with a forum for decision making and information flow.
The Solar Sisters™ allows village community centers, schools, health posts and monasteries to obtain Solar PV systems by facilitating a stream of international volunteer donors to donate and install RET systems in an engaging philanthropic eco-tourism program. This allows the community to have some control of the revenues and the benefits of the tourism industry, which hitherto benefits the central Governments and private companies with little resources following back to the community.
At the core of this program is the integration of RET system use with income generation and poverty reduction activities. By facilitating increased economic activities through engagement in productive end-uses of RET systems, environmental, livelihoods and empowerment benefits become an important outcome of the program.
Gender Focus
From the very beginning of the project, both the men and women were involved in the program. The HELP program gives great emphasis on women’s participation. The program itself demands and depends on women’s participation. Both HLF and SLF makes ensure that there is adequate women’s representation in the SDC so that any decision made in the SDC should be equally shared and acceptable to the women participants also. In fact, there is always an equal participation of both the sexes in the HELP program because HLF has experienced that without the support from the entire family the program cannot be successful in terms of both the ownership, accountability and production.
Promoting Public Awareness of Global Environment
The success of any program rests on the people’s participation. People will only participate when they understand the program’s purpose clearly in relation to their own living requirements. Therefore, in this program people have become aware of local and global environmental issues. They have understood the long term consequences of the unsustainable practice of lavishly cutting trees and using Kerosene oil which is both hazardous to human being as well as the environment.
The problem of smoke emissions in the home has always been a constant source of suffering for the villagers. All villagers who wipe heavy black soot off their noses and have incessant respiratory problems are aware of their own environmental problems. Upon receiving and using SHS many local environmental problems were solved including creating a safer circumstance for the children vis a vis open flames as was the case with kerosene lanterns and lamps.
Inovative Financial Mechanisms
The HELP program has been in operation in three villages in Nepal for the past ten years and its modality effectiveness has followed a “linked chain RETS barter system.” For instance, financial resources are put in a revolving fund and the villagers use the resources to acquire /purchase a RET system. For payment, the household start making of commercial-oriented handicraft products, which are used against payment to the fund, the product is eventually sold off and the money is returned to the revolving fund. A new additional RET system is purchased and the process has continued successfully
Project Results
Output: Dissemination of RETs based on the concepts of the Home Employment and Lighting Package™ (HELP) and the Solar Sisters™ overseas volunteer / donor program initiated in Sri Lanka and India.
The program goal was to make progress in the expansion, consolidation and outreach of the innovative programs HELP™ Solar Sisters™ and to assure further replication of the programs regionally and across the world.
The program was ambitious and successful in expanding the HELP™ program to Sri Lanka, and by adding new India partners for Solar Sisters. In addition to meeting the goal to add India into the set of new potential Solar Sisters destination countries, the program proponents were able to add another country destination, Bhutan, into the fold also within the scope of this GEF program.
As the HELP™ program was also expanded by the commencement of the SPOWTS™ system dissemination in Solukhumbu area of Nepal within the HELP™ modality for vital service provision, the goal to expand HELP™ in Nepal was also accomplished.
Further consolidation works to assist the development of the previous HELP™ program, “Paper and Power” in Lekhani were also accomplished by further training in the areas of product development, marketing and marketing assistance for the HELP™ products issuing from that village. New marketing channels are still being developed in the USA and additional leads are coming up for buyers to augment the purchasing power of the F&G group as a back up plan to assure more of the total village products made come to market successfully.
The brochures and manuals made with the GEF SGP support are also critical accomplishments, which assure deepening outreach intended to draw additional and continued volunteer / donor support from those in developing countries.
As the HELP™ and Solar Sisters Manual were developed, design and printed and distributed to many stakeholders, the total outreach assured by these publications was unlimited. However, HLF’s mailing list and new interest in the program already experienced by inquiries and new Solar Sisters donor commitments are already yielding new SSP installations in community buildings in Nepal for the poorest villagers.
The immediate benefits received by the participants and \or the recipient communities:
• Field implementation and establishment of the HELP™ program was initiated in Sri Lankan village, Puwakpitiya. Total of 100 families are already in the program, fifty families initially started and later, by the income from the sale of HELP™ products. The project saved family income from buying expensive kerosene and dry cell batteries, and helped to reduce CO2 in the air as a result. As the SHS systems installed can be expected to last 40 years or longer, the long-term benefits include free energy for these poorest villagers over this forty year time span.
• Puwakpitiya project beneficiaries and SLF project staff empowered with skills such as handmade paper and paper product making, product design, marketing, micro finance, documentation, Social mobilization and establishment of a revolving fund for additional and expanded RET system purchases. The revolving Electrification and Income Enterprise Fund (RELIEF™) establishment within the organizational context of Sewlanka Foundation and their community based partner in Puwakpitaya, is another example of the long-term benefit of the expansion goal of the GEF SGP support.
• Established and linked the Sri Lanka HELP™ program product sales with F&G Group in Sri Lanka. This assures that required steps were taken to assure that a commercial profile of selling HELP™ products was stuck within the time-frame of this program. By engaging F&G commercially, post program sales are insured which in turn insures the success and further revolution of the fund for more SHS and RET purchases and resulting carbon emission reduction into the long-term future.
• Conducted a larger scale centralized stakeholder’s workshop in Nepal involving Government, NGOs/CBOs interested in working in remote and with vulnerable communities, the private sector, development partners and local communities and shared experiences of the two villages to the stakeholders (Bongadovan, Lekhani village of Baglung first and second HELP™ village)
This above activity assured a higher program visibility, which should pave the way for smoother HELP™ expansion if subsequent MSP rounds pipeline successfully.
• Identified and consummated activities with partners in Nepal and Sri Lanka including: Young Star Club of Solukhumbu, Sewalanka Foundation and Himalayan Nature Fiber Foundation, who could expand the program in other villages in Nepal in HELP™ modality. By partnering with and offering training to regional and local Nepal partners, organizational capacities for HELP™ modality replication were greatly increased.
• Launched SPOWTS™ / Solar Tuki women’s enterprise in the Everest Region within the HELP™ modality as leveraging of Strategic project installed Five SPOWTS systems, three Solar Tuki women’s entrepreneurs groups and installed 53 Solar Home System in the Solukhumbu region. The long term benefits of this element of the GEF SGP program include a full test of the HELP™ modality using a commercial vital service provision modality, the first of its kind within HELP™ programs.
• Provided marketing and product design training to the existing HELP™ villages representative from Nepal and also supported their marketing through supporting a representative in central level for National marketing from Kathmandu
• Aligned with Dolpo Amchis via the new partner Dho Tarap Welfare Society for vital service provision. Twenty-six solar lighting systems of forty watts (40 watts) each were distributed for Dolpo Amchi (indigenous herbal doctors), schools and monasteries. Further commitments were found for second similar rounds for longer term assistance to that region.
• Solar Sisters volunteers from USA, UK and Australia installed seven units of forty watts systems in Gorkha and Okhaldhunga district in three schools and one monastery. Additional Solar Sisters have responded to web site accounts and e-based follow-up and have therefore proved the effectiveness of the web-based outreach even in the short term.
• A school in Halesi in Okhaldhunga district in Nepal received the first Solar Siblings installations support from the USA and installed lighting system and solar powered computer. Long term benefits include the firm establishment of the Solar Siblings sub-modality which will fill not only greater energy voids, (a typical solar power system to supply computer power for a school is four times the size of an average single forty watt SHS) but also secure greater social and educational advantages for children in areas served.
• Surveyed and identified five additional solar sisters destinations which are community centers in Tezu Arunachal Pradesh, India. These have been posted on the new Solar Sisters web site and will in time draw the needed support to accomplish the installations for all the centers requested. Long term benefits will likely spread to additional Tibetan refugee colony camps in Miao India which serve far larger populations.
• Concluded the first Bhutan Solar Siblings installation in Wolfthang School in Punakha, Bhutan. The success of this program will supply energy to the school for years , while acting as an example to draw other donor volunteers to Bhutan for further program expansion in that country. Inquiries have already commenced based on the web outreach supported by GEF SGP in this program period.
1. Newsletters
An important part of the HELP™ program outreach was also facilitated by GEF SGP by several HLF newsletters. These newsletters can be viewed at the site: http://www.hlf.org.np/index.php?id=8 and offer highlights of the HELP™ and Solar Sisters program development during the program period as well as on earlier stages of the programs.
HLF news letters are sent to HLF’s own mailing lists and we encourage anyone reading this report to broadcast the above link and the links:
www.hlf.org.np http://www.hlf.org.np/GEFSGPStrategic/
http://www.hlf.org.np/solarsisters/ http://www.hlf.org.np/solarsisters/solarsiblings.php
2. Web Based Outreach:
A completely new section of the HLF web site was constructed called the HLF Solar Sisters Program Web site which is now completed by the engagement of a GEF Strategic program supported web master for these works. Construction of the web site in accordance with the GEF strategic objectives allows new potential volunteer / donors from any country to see the potential sites available for support and installations in the new locations in all new Solar Sisters Program operation locations in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. See: www.hlf.org.np/solarsisters/php Browsers can now select their areas of support by country, end use of the installation: i.e. health post, school, monastery, orphanage, community center, etc. or they can search and decide by demographic information about beneficiaries or benefits of the particular installation.
This special posting of potential SSP sites in each country assures a far greater draw of interest from SSP volunteer / donors necessary to fill the needs of all the newest SSP potential sites surveyed and catalogued within this time period as well as for those that will be catalogued in the next periods ahead. Support is sought from any source for further development of appropriately selected international mailing lists from which potential SSP volunteer / donors may be found.
• Developed user friendly HLF main page; www.hlf.org.np
• Developed special GEF Strategic page; http://www.hlf.org.np/GEFSGPStrategic/
• Entirely new and user friendly Solar Sisters pages with country-wise pages of Nepal, Sri Lanka, India and Bhutan; http://www.hlf.org.np/solarsisters/
• Donation buttons using Paypal installed; http://www.hlf.org.np/index.php?id=9
• Developed and published crucial outreach materials such as Solar Sisters brochures
• Published Three Newsletters Highlighting Strategic project
• Solar Sisters and HELP and Solar Siblings Manual developed and published
3. GEF SGP Strategic Web page:
A special new web page has also been completed for outreach and information dissemination of the GEF Strategic project complete with Hyper-links to related sites and activities such as UNDP’s GEF web site, GEF main web site, SLF, and other partner sites, etc. See: http://www.hlf.org.np/GEFSGPStrategic/
Efforts will continue to register special key words in search engines that will enhance searches for the information while a site counter has been installed to monitor the frequency of visits to the site to gauge effectiveness of the various efforts made to increase visibility and replication efforts.These linkages coupled with a mass mailing to HLF’s mailing lists and partner organizations will assure further exposure of the program modalities to potential program modality replicators throughout the region. The linkages and outreach will also assure a broadening of outreach for the application of GEF SGP programs.
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