Smart Villages

Profile: Dodji Agbezo, Project Production Solaire – Finalist, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Brief biography Dodji AGBEZO is the head of Projet Production Solaire Togo Company. He has two masters Degree. The first master in 2007 in Energy option at University of Lomé. Since training as renewable energy and energy efficiency engineer from International Institute of engineering of water and the environment (2IE), in Burkina Faso (www.2ie-edu.org) in […]

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Profile: Kouma Agbenowossi, Project Production Solaire – Finalist, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Kouma Agbenowossi is in charge of marketing for PPS (Projet production Solaire), which specializes in Renewable Energy in Togo.  Kouma started working with PPS in March 2016 and has a background in negotiation, leadership education and team management.  He is studying Business Administration and Leadership (ongoing) at VELI (van Duyse Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute) at Cotonou-Benin,

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Profile: Prince Monsekea, PayGo Ventures – Finalist, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Brief biography Prince Monsekea is the Head of Solar at Paygo Ventures, where he is in charge of product selection and design and of solar solutions, and managing our team of installers. Previously, he was the Head of the Renewable Energy department at consulting firm ASCOTECH, and Technical Director at solar energy and electricity contractor

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Doing rural energy in ‘rugged and inhospitable’ places

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Tony Woods Founder, Sustainable Energy Services International (SESI) Location: Global, with origins in Central Asia / Pakistan and Afghanistan border “I didn’t know what I didn’t know, so there was nothing to be afraid of.” After spending time working in Singapore, Tony Woods was on an ambitious bicycle tour, from South Africa to China,

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Profile: Andrew Carter, PayGo Ventures – Finalist, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Brief biography Andrew Carter is the Managing Director of Paygo Ventures. Previously at the African Development Bank, he led mini-grid technical assistance and initiatives to provide debt finance to pay as you go solar companies. Prior to that, he consulted for clients in Côte d’Ivoire and Democratic Republic of Congo on mini-grid projects. His entrepreneurship

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Profile: Fatima Oyiza Ademoh, Ajima Farms – Finalist, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Brief Biography: Miss. Fatima Oyiza Ademoh is experienced in business development & renewable energy project development. Currently, she is the Project Developer for the Power Africa USADF funded off-grid energy project implemented by Ajima in Nigeria and an Entrepreneurship lecturer at Baze University. She recently served as the Business Development Executive at Novantus Energy. Fatima

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Profile: Check Traoré, Nafa Naana – Winner, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

What is your off-grid energy business? Can you give a brief overview? How long have you been working on this business? Nafa Naana is a social business making clean and affordable energy products available to the poorest households of Burkina Faso. Nafa Naana implements an innovative business model, which combines a microfranchise approach to an

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Smart Rural Development: the SDGs and the New European Consensus on Development

Workshops /

Agenda: Smart Rural Development The Smart Villages Initiative and the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) held a one-day event on 19th June 2017 at the Leopold Hotel, Brussels, focusing on “Smart Rural Development: the SDGs and the New European Consensus on Development.” The New European Consensus on Development was proposed in November 2016 and

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Profile: Sayouba Guira, Nafa Naana – Winner, West Africa

Energy Entrepreneurs /

What is your off-grid energy business? Can you give a brief overview? How long have you been working on this business? Nafa Naana is a social business making clean and affordable energy products available to the poorest households of Burkina Faso. Nafa Naana implements an innovative business model, which combines a microfranchise approach to an adapted microcredit scheme: we

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Profiles of Smart Villages Competition Finalists and Winners

Energy Entrepreneurs /

East Africa Energy Innovation Challenge 2017 The third annual East Africa Energy Innovation Challenge took place in summer 2017.  With the application and screening process fully handed over the CDI for a sustainable continuation of the programme, the Cambridge Development Initiative (https://cambridgedevelopment.wordpress.com/) (CDI) selected 11 individuals out of over 200 applicants for the programme. The

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TR15: Can Smart Villages help to stem biodiversity loss?

Technical Reports /

Biodiversity is important at various levels, including the economic, social and environmental. It is critically important for rural communities through the provision of ecosystem services, including energy access, a link that is often overlooked. The concept of ‘Smart Villages’ is that modern energy access in the form of sustainable renewable energy can contribute as a catalyst for development—education, health, food security, environment, productive

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[:en]Webinar: Reaping the benefits of energy access: Gender, policy, and practice[:]

Webinars /

[:en] In this webinar, we’ll be joined by several speakers who will speak about their experience with gender & energy policy and practice in the context of rural development. We’ll be guided by questions such as – what must still be done at the policy level to ensure that women and girls have access to

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Oorja: Turning farm waste into energy in Uttar Pradesh

Energy Entrepreneurs /

Interview with Amit Saraogi, Co-founder and CEO, Oorja Location: Delhi, India “We will be able to strengthen local economic development, increasing demand for our solution and bringing jobs into the local economy” Amit Saraogi spent part of his childhood in Uttar Pradesh, playing amidst the rice fields where his family harvested rice paddy to be processed in their

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Smart Villages announces Nafa Naana as the Winner of the 2017 Off-grid Energy Challenge for West Africa

Press Releases /

Smart Villages is pleased to announce Nafa Naana as the winner of the Off-grid Energy Challenge for West Africa.  Nafa Naana is a social business that improves access to clean and efficient energy solutions through a microfranchised distribution network and microfinance services in Burkina Faso. Nafa Naana develops marketing and financial solutions to strengthen distribution

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New study in Energy Policy: Indigenous community preferences for electricity services: Evidence from a choice experiment in Sarawak, Malaysia

External content /

In this new publication, two members of the Smart Villages team along with Malaysian experts from Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia explore the question of whether communities prefer a community-based model or a utility-based model. The researchers found that the most value was placed on the operator-model underpinning the

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[:en]Webinar: A breath of fresh air: What’s next for clean cookstoves?[:]

Webinars /

[:en] Clean cookstoves have made great strides in recent years, helping to solve the huge challenge of indoor air pollution, the fourth biggest health risk in the developing world. This is an urgent task: 1.9 million people die each year around the world from exposure to smoke from cooking, and 3 billion people are using

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WR36: Off-grid energy for rural development in Latin America and the Caribbean

Workshop Reports /

The Smart Villages Initiative organised a workshop in Panama City on 2-3 May 2017, bringingtogether significant actors in rural electrification in Latin America to discuss challenges and opportunities in rural electrification, with the aim of jointly developing recommendations to policymakers. Key topics for discussion included the role of the government versus the private sector in rural electrification, innovative options for financing such

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