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.
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Dhaka on 26 August 2015 to consider the experience in Bangladesh of off-grid rural energy systems. This briefing note for policymakers and other stakeholders summarises key points emerging from the workshop.
This policy brief summarises the findings and recommendations arising from a 15 month programme of engagement in East Africa, commencing in June 2014, undertaken by the Smart Villages Initiative to identify the barriers to off-grid sustainable energy access for development in rural communities and to gather views on how those barriers can be overcome. It …
BR7: Lessons learned from the Smart Villages Engagement Programme in East Africa Read More »
The Smart Villages Initiative held its second major international workshop in Kuching, then capital city of Sarawak, Malaysia in January 2015. The workshop was the outcome of a collaboration between the Smart Villages Initiative, Akademi Sains Malaysia (the Malaysian Academy of Sciences) and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). It brought together a diverse group of around …
BR6: Findings from the Kuching Smart Villages Workshop Read More »
What are the characteristic features of a smart village? How might progression towards a smart village model improve lives in those communities? This brief provides a vision for improving the lives of rural villagers based on the smart villages concept (a rural analogue to smart cities). It also explores two prototypical case studies in Malaysia …
This policy brief summarises key gender issues associated with rural energy access for development and establishing smart villages. It draws on a more detailed technical report (Welland, 2015) which identifies the reports and papers on which this review has been based.
The Smart Villages Initiative together with its local partner, Practical Action Consulting South Asia, held a workshop in Kathmandu on 10th April 2015 to consider off-grid energy systems in Nepal. The workshop focused on Nepal’s substantial experience of micro/mini-hydro schemes, and on initiatives to stimulate productive enterprises enabled by the availability of sustainable electricity supplies. …
BR3: Findings from the Nepal Smart Villages Workshop Read More »
Innovation competitions for new technologies and business models are one tool used by policy makers in a range of contexts and countries to help businesses in new fields overcome practical barriers blocking progress between successful pilots and commercialisation. This brief note discusses competitions relevant to African off-grid energy and how they could be designed and …
BR2: The role of innovation competitions for off-grid energy in Africa Read More »
This note provides a summary of the workshop’s findings and recommendations for policy makers. A more detailed report of the workshop, together with copies of the presentations made at the workshop can be found here. Key points 1.3 billion people worldwide have no access to electricity. 3 billion people are still cooking with dangerous and inefficient stoves. Policy …
BR1: Findings from the Arusha Smart Villages workshop Read More »