Jun 13 2021
On one of our recent community visits to run focus groups in Central Uganda, we were surprised by some of the signs plastered around the primary school building, where the focus groups were held. The first signs outside the building were innocent, with messages like “DO NOT LITTER”, “ALWAYS BRUSH YOUR TEETH”, “WASH YOUR HANDS …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/primary-school-messaging-on-early-pregnancy/
Feb 03 2021
As part of the Education Technology Project we ran in 2021, we worked closely with a local secondary school for running focus groups and user tests. It is eye-opening seeing the conditions the students live in, when you compare it with what we have in England. Most students live too far away to walk in …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/teaching-with-limited-resources/
Jan 20 2021
The SVRG approach is grounded in community engagement and human centred design, to ensure the systems we install bring real, lasting benefit. Unfortunately, due to language barriers, we are unable to run focus groups ourselves, but rely on our in-country partners to assist with translation, or with running the entire group following training. Our translators …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/language-and-education-barriers-in-community-engagement/
Oct 06 2020
Trying to get a good education in the rural communities with which we work in Tanzania is a real challenge. With classes of 80 students, insufficient chairs, classrooms and equipment, no electricity or running water, lack of funds to buy textbooks, and some parents encouraging their children to fail the pre-secondary exams so they don’t …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/an-intro-to-rural-tanzanian-schools/
Oct 01 2020
This project is funded by InnovateUK, the UK’s Innovation Agency. In the communities in which SVRG works, improving education is a high priority. Rural schools are often overcrowded, difficult to reach, and poorly resourced. Teachers are poorly paid, resulting in high rates of absenteeism among teachers at government schools. Existing educational material (for example free …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/sustainable-offgrid-edtech-for-education-continuity-and-outcomes-in-the-developing-world/
Apr 06 2018
[:en] One of the most powerful benefits of energy access in rural communities in the developing world is the potential impact on education. Whether a simple solar lantern permits an extra hour of homework and study after dark, or whether a more sophisticated community energy and ICT project permits remote education and training to take …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/webinar-education-and-young-people/
Jun 30 2017
The Smart Villages Initiative and the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council (EASAC) held a one-day workshop focusing on “Smart Rural Development: the Sustainable Development Goals and the New European Consensus on Development” in Brussels on 20 June 2017. The New European Consensus on Development was proposed in November 2016 and the European Parliament adopted its position in February 2017. On 7 June 2017 at the …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/workshop-report-brussels/
May 29 2017
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/policy-brief-panama/
Apr 13 2017
The Smart Villages Initiative aims to provide policy-makers, donors, and development agencies concerned with rural energy access with new insights on the real barriers to energy access in villages in developing countries and how they can be overcome. This report aims to give an overview of the links between electricity access and education through a review of the literature in this area. It …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/technical-report-13/
Mar 21 2017
Integrated ministerial strategy and micro-grid financing are other key issues identified by first global study of rural off-grid communities Bangkok: Delegates to the Smart Villages Initiative Closing Workshop for South and Southeast Asia in Bangkok March 7-9 agreed that a bottom-up approach involving villagers themselves is essential to catalyse energy access and spread its resultant …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/bottom-inclusive-approach-evidence-productive-uses-crucial-smart-village-success-south-southeast-asia-concludes-final-workshop/
Mar 16 2017
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/workshop-report-thailand/
Mar 15 2017
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 …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/policy-brief-thailand/
Mar 02 2017
The Smart Villages Initiative (SVI) the Global Young Academy (GYA), the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), and the National Science Museum (NSM) held a workshop on off-grid energy for rural development in Bangkok, Thailand from 7 to 9 March 2017. The workshop covered how energy access in off grid villages can enable improvements …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/off-grid-energy-rural-development-southeast-south-asia-closing-regional-workshop/
Dec 07 2016
Interview with Lauren Grimanis Founder, The Akaa Project Location: Eastern Ghana / Boston, Massachusetts “I love the notion of bringing things back to the village”. When Lauren Grimanis first visited Ghana, she was a senior in high school. It was July 2007, and she was working on her college applications. She only stayed there for …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/villages-become-education-hubs-work-akaa-project-ghana/
Sep 28 2016
Interview with Josephine Marie Godwyll Founder and National Coordinator at Young at Heart Ghana Location: Ghana “The missing link most of the time is information”. Rural communities have a tremendous amount to gain from access to information. The internet offers potential solutions to many of the problems that make rural life difficult, but these are …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/children-rural-ghana-empowered-access-information-skills/
Sep 18 2016
Interview with Moni Gupta Co-founder of Mobile Education for Smart Technology Location: India / Cambridge, UK “The same thing they are learning in their books they can explore with this technology and build up more creativity”. Today, Moni Gupta is a PhD student in chemistry at the University of Cambridge. But she remembers her time …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/cambridge-students-bring-tech-indian-students-inspire-learning/
Aug 03 2016
Interview with Michael Farrelly Chololo Ecovillage Location: Tanzania “If 70 percent of your population is dependent on rain-fed agriculture, then climate change is a big issue”. With a masters degree in rural development, Michael Farrelly has brought a knowledge of participatory research methods to the Chololo Ecovillage. By offering villagers a wide range of climate-resilient techniques to …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/cost-delivering-knowledge-depends-michael-farrelly-chololo-ecovillage/
Jul 21 2016
Although Latin America has experienced a successful decade of reduction in poverty and inequality, it continues to be the most unequal region in the world1. The persistence of high levels of social injustice is not accidental: its profound structural causes are rooted in unfair political, economic and social institutional frameworks, which have been shaped throughout …
Permanent link to this article: https://e4sv.org/energy-ict-educational-inclusion-latin-america/