Energy poverty is a crippling component of the poverty trap that consigns victims to lives of drudgery and subsistence. Accordingly, we have recently seen the rise of concern for energy access on the international stage. However, at the national level the gravity of this issue has yet to be fully appreciated, and poor people's energy access is consequently insufficiently prioritized in many countries.
The Poor People's Energy Outlook 2014: Key Messages on Energy for Poverty Alleviation looks back at three years of robust analysis and innovative approaches to defining and addressing energy poverty, as presented in previous PPEOs, to re-emphasise the key role energy for poor people plays in development. Together, these topics form the basis for a revised framework of scaled-up global and national action presented at the conclusion of the PPEO 2014.The PPEO 2014 will be of interest to anyone seeking to better understand the interaction between energy access and community services, and what must be done to achieve universal access to modern energy services by 2030 as called for by the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) initiative.
Prelims (Foreword| Introduction)
1 Energy for households
2 Energy for earning a living
3 Energy for community services
4 Defining and measuring energy access
5 The Energy Access Ecosystem Index
6 A framework for action
Back Matter (Notes| References| Photo captions and credits)
"The ENERGIA International Network greatly appreciates the Poor People's Energy Outlook series and the impact it has had on the SE4ALL development agenda. We welcome its efforts to bring the realities of women and men living in underserved communities to the fore. The PPEO series has added value to the ENERGIA Network's learning and exchange, and is an essential resource showcasing game-changing solutions that contribute to our Network's objective of women's economic empowerment through energy access."
- Sheila Oparaocha, Executive-Secretary, Energia – International Network on Gender and Sustainable Energy
"It is great to see this progressive report move beyond seeing energy as an access or supply issue to a service-based definition focusing on end-uses of energy to achieve real impacts. This is reflected in the range of outcome-focused indicators described in the Poor People's Energy Outlook 2014, which measure how an energy service is performing, rather than simply the number of grid connections counted using traditional measures. It is also very encouraging to see a call for action, with a practical framework, on delivering energy services to meet the productive/enterprise and community-level needs of poor women and men – bringing a more holistic and ambitious set of targets which encompass education, health, communications, and income generation."
- Ben Garside, Researcher, Energy Team, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
"Universal access to clean, modern energy services for the people of sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important challenges of our time. We warmly welcome the publication of this book which will help us to target our interventions better."
- Ousmane Fall Sarr, Director of Research and Information System, Senegalese Rural Electrification Agency, Dakar, Senegal