These are all the policy briefs produced by the original 2014-2017 Smart Villages Initiative. They present succinct outcomes and recommendations from Smart Villages workshops and dialogue sessions for policymakers. All are freely downloadable from our website.
We’re pleased to share with you the new Smart Villages “pocket guide” to rural energy and development! This pocket guide is intended as a quick reference to off-grid technologies, policies, and impacts – including stories of successful village energy projects from across the global south. For remote off-grid villages, local solutions are often both more …
Smart Villages “Pocket Guide” to rural energy & development Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative organised a workshop in Panama City on 2-3 May 2017 to discuss the challenges of, and opportunities for, rural electrification in Latin America. The workshop was the conclusion of the Smart Villages Initiative’s engagement activities in the region and brought together significant actors in rural electrification with the aim of jointly developing recommendations to …
Nicaragua’s energy sector is facing one of the most important challenges of its history in terms energy infrastructure development and electricity access. As a result of substantial investments in grid extension and strengthening of distribution and transmission systems, official figures indicate that electrification rates increased from 47 percent in 2002 to 80 percent in 2014. …
BR27: Energy access in Nicaragua – financial mechanisms and energy policies Read More »
A high percentage of the West African population lives in remote rural areas without access to modern energy services. Clean energy mini-grids (CEMGs) have been identified as essential to helping achieve universal electricity access in the region and they feature as important parts of national targets and renewable energy action plans for all ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) countries. It is estimated that mini-grids …
BR26: Energy access in West Africa – Policy Recommendations Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative concluded its regional engagement in South and Southeast Asia with a workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, in March 2017. The workshop was jointly organised with the Global Young Academy (GYA), the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), and the National Science Museum (NSM) of Thailand. From 7 to 9 March 2017, the workshop brought together 43 key stakeholders representing …
As the world moves towards 2030, the deadline for achieving the targets of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Initiative, it is important to review the achievements of the past years and readjust our path to meet the goal. For this reason, Practical Action together with the Smart Villages Initiative held a one-day regional workshop …
BR24: Rural Energy Access Planning in Togo – Policy Brief Read More »
The resilience of rural communities to natural disasters and other shocks is an important issue for rural villages; hard-won development gains can all too readily be lost through natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, droughts, and floods. This is particular so for countries in Latin America and the Caribbean which are at risk from a …
The Smart Villages Initiative together with the National Academy of Sciences of the Dominican Republic held a workshop on 16-18 November 2016 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, to discuss the challenges to, and opportunities for, the provision of clean energy services to rural communities in Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico. The workshop explored the …
Agriculture continues to be central to the lives and economies of rural communities in India. Many of those communities have little or no access to modern energy services. These realities motivated the holding of the workshop “Energy and agriculture for smart villages in India” in September 2016 at the International Crops Research Institute for the …
BR20: Findings from the workshop on energy and agriculture for smart villages in India Read More »
Water, energy, and food are the building blocks of life. Access to these resources is necessary for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. There is increasing realisation that these resource systems cannot be looked at in isolation and that they are interrelated. There is an urgent need to look at these systems as part of a …
BR19: The water-energy-food nexus in West Africa Read More »
The Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc) together with the Smart Villages Initiative held a workshop in July 2016 focused on mini-grid energy generation, storage, and transmission technologies in India and how they will be implemented. The workshop was held at the IISc campus in Bangalore and brought together academics, students, policymakers, business people, and NGO practitioners interested in sustainable energy and rural electrification.
The Smart Villages Initiative together with the Philippines Center for Water and Sanitation (PCWS) held a workshop in Burgos, Ilocos Norte in the Philippines to discuss issues relating to the nexus of energy, water, and food in rural off-grid communities in Southeast Asia on 1-3 June 2016. Expert participants were brought together from the water, …
There is substantial potential across West Africa to develop renewable energy resources for electricity generation. Despite the potential, a substantial portion of the population across the region remains without access to electricity. For cooking, a large majority of the population remains dependent on using biomass as the basic fuel in rudimentary cook stoves to meet …
BR16: Findings from the Smart Villages West Africa regional workshop Read More »
The University of Edinburgh together with the Smart Villages Initiative held a workshop at the Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Innovation on 11 May 2016. The workshop brought together 27 social and physical scientists, industry representatives and entrepreneurs, energy and international development policy makers, and practitioners. The workshop provided an overview of new insights and research …
BR15: Findings from the Workshop on Frontier Energy Storage Technologies Read More »
2.5 million people in Bolivia live without a clean and sustainable energy source, and rely on diesel, kerosene, and candles for lighting. Many of them live in remote rural communities. The Political Constitution of Bolivia establishes that access to electricity is a citizen’s right, and the country aims to be fully electrified by 2025. To …
In smart villages, energy access together with other key components of infrastructure can accelerate the development of education and healthcare services, provision of clean water and sanitation, availability of nutritious food, and the establishment of productive enterprises. Underpinned by technological advances, such developments provide substantial improvements in well-being and life opportunities, and a choice between …
BR13: Smart Villages and resilience to natural disasters Read More »
More than half of the population in Southeast Asia continues to depend primarily on biomass as fuel in inefficient cookstoves to meet their cooking needs. The majority of those using biomass are based in rural areas. In view of this high level of dependence on biomass, various countries in the region have launched improved cookstove …
BR12: Sustainable dissemination of improved cookstoves: Lessons from Southeast Asia Read More »
South American countries have made significant progress in energy access, but more than 30 million people (around 7% of the population) continue to live without electricity. While energy access levels are much higher than in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the communities remaining without electricity typically live in particularly remote locations, in the mountains or …
BR11: Off-grid energy in remote communities: Lessons from South America Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Kopernik, held a workshop on Bunaken Island, Sulawesi in Indonesia, in November 2015 to discuss off-grid energy systems in remote island communities in Southeast Asia. The workshop focused on the barriers and circumstances of rural energy access that are unique to small island communities, drawing inspiration …
BR10: Findings from the Indonesian Smart Villages Workshop on Energy for Islands Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative, supported by the Rural Support Programmes Network, Pakistan organised a workshop in Islamabad, Pakistan on 6 October 2015 to consider Pakistan’s experience of developing enabling frameworks for the dissemination of micro-grids. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.