The political profile of energy access is unprecedented. Globally, the UN Sustainable Energy for All Initiative has ensured that the issue is now recognized as central to international development dialogue. In many countries, however, poor people's energy access is yet to be given sufficient priority and fails to be acknowledged as a key enabler in improving health, education, and other community services.
As a contribution to creating a new energy narrative, the Poor People's Energy Outlook (PPEO) highlights what matters to poor people. It prioritizes their perspectives and those of practitioners working with them. PPEO 2013, the third in the series, focuses on delivering energy at community level, illustrating the difference that improved energy services and supply can make to health, education and infrastructure, including access to water, and street lighting. Poor People's Energy Outlook 2013 makes the case for energy for community services; encouraging greater investment in, and integration of, this often neglected area of energy provision.
The Poor People's Energy Outlook 2013 will be of interest to anyone seeking to understand better the interaction between energy access and community services, both energy sector professionals and development practitioners alike.
Figures, tables and boxes
Acronyms and abbreviations
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Executive summary
Introduction
1Energy for community services
Health care
Education
Public institutions
Infrastructure services
Attracting and retaining professionals – the role of energy
Summary: energy for community services
2 A framework for defining and measuring access to energy
The multi-tier approach to measuring access to energy
Measuring energy for productive use
3 An analysis of commitments to Sustainable
Energy for All
4 The Energy Access Ecosystem Index
The Energy Access Ecosystem in practice
Energy Access Ecosystem Index ratings
5 Framework for action
Beyond the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
Notes
References
"The new PPEO report is extremely important, providing useful insights into the linkages between energy access and community services – an area which has been largely overlooked."
- Dr Marlis Kees, GIZ
"Life without energy is death. This book is a “must read” for all development partners, individuals, governments, and NGOs that want a better and safer world."
- Dr Sam Agbo, Head of Health and HIV, Save the Children
"Having been neglected for too long, energy access is finally where it belongs – at the centre of attention of the development community."
- Michael Franz, EUEI-PDF Project Manager