Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have announced an innovative partnership focused on bringing clean and efficient cooking solutions to schools in Africa, helping them shift away from polluting and harmful cooking methods currently used for preparing student meals.

Transitioning schools to clean, affordable and reliable cooking solutions, such as electric cooking (eCooking), improves the health of students, teachers and cooks by reducing their exposure to air pollution generated in school kitchens. It also improves wider economic and social outcomes, for example by eliminating time spent collecting firewood, while protecting the environment from emissions and deforestation from firewood use.

WFP has more than six decades of expertise providing and supporting school meals programmes, and SEforALL is dedicated to ending energy poverty and fighting climate change, so the two organizations saw a strong opportunity to further their respective missions by focusing on bringing sustainable energy to school meal programmes.

The partnership will first focus on implementing projects in Tanzania, where H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has set a goal to deliver clean cooking solutions to 80 percent of the population by 2033. 

SEforALL and WFP, together with the Government of Tanzania and the UKAid-funded Modern Energy Cooking Services (MECS) programme, have already begun work on creating an eCooking programme in Tanzania that targets an initial 50 schools. These are primary schools with school feeding programmes that are connected to the national electricity grid, which offers an immediate opportunity to provide clean eCooking solutions that will feed more than 25,000 students.

Beyond the initial 50 schools, the partnership has identified more than 5,000 grid-connected schools in Tanzania for potential expansion of the programme, with more expected to join as electrification extension progresses. Using learnings from Tanzania, WFP and SEforALL will look to scale the programme to other countries as well. The partners have the ambition of reaching 10,000 schools and 5 million children globally in the next 3 years and are calling for an investment of about USD 100 million combined with carbon financing, to achieve this target.

The partnership was announced during the Summit on Clean Cooking in Africa on 14 May in Paris.

Clean cooking goes hand in hand with education, which is why we have designed a large-scale institutional e-cooking initiative in schools. We will kick-start this in Tanzania, where H.E. President Samia Suluhu Hassan has made this a priority.”

-Damilola Ogunbiyi, CEO and Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All, and Co-Chair of UN-Energy

Investing in clean cooking in households and at schools can make an important contribution to curbing global greenhouse gas emissions and reducing deforestation while promoting food security. With more than 418 million children receiving school meals in the world, this partnership will support governments to scale the ambition for clean cooking in schools and mobilize sustainable financing, while also supporting the establishment of carbon markets in Africa and elsewhere. 

-Stanlake J.T.M. Samkange, ad interim Assistant Executive Director of WFP

To support the fight against COVID-19, Tanzanian mini-grid company JUMEME is providing free electricity to the 10 healthcare facilities that are currently connected to its mini-grids. Nine more facilities soon to be connected will also be receiving free power.

Leo Schiefermueller, responsible for the Africa market of RP Global, the majority owner of JUMEME, says this recent act was simply “the company’s way of helping out by providing an essential service to the communities where we operate.”

It is another example of the company’s keen awareness of the productive uses of electricity, specifically how electricity can power more than individual households but larger community development and economic activities.

In fact, Schiefermueller says the company is built on a “productive use business model for mini-grid development.” The model has several advantages for both the communities where JUMEME builds its mini-grids, but also in alleviating some of the financial challenges associated with developing mini-grids in rural areas with low-income populations.

“To have a business model based on the demand of electricity from rural households only is very difficult, and therefore you need to find creative ways to build value through different means.”

With this in mind, since its inception, JUMEME’s strategy has been to identify opportunities for its mini-grids to become embedded in local economies. With its first-ever project on Ukara Island in Lake Victoria, JUMEME experimented with what it calls its KeyMaker Model. In short, JUMEME sought to create a mini-grid business with an additional arm that supports the local fishing industry.

This pilot project involved building the mini-grid to offer power to local residents, but also running a business that bought fish from local fishermen, processing and freezing them on-site using its own electricity, and then selling the frozen fish to distributors for sale across Tanzania. The presence of JUMEME in the value chain provided fishermen with greater market potential and higher prices for their fish because of access to burgeoning middle-class consumers in cities like Dar Es Salaam.

The pilot was successful on several fronts. First, JUMEME now employs five local personnel involved in the operation of multiple mini-grids on Lake Victoria, with seven more people contracted to help with fish processing at these sites, and another seven for transportation of the fish. It purchases from approximately 50 local fishermen.

Meanwhile, using lessons from the pilot JUMEME has expanded and now has 12 mini-grids in operation on Lake Victoria islands, connecting roughly 5,000 customers and supplying an area of roughly 80,000 people with electricity. A further 11 mini-grids are currently being completed, providing a further 5,300 connections, and the company is planning a third scaling phase that it hopes will start construction by the end of 2020.

The common denominator between all these mini-grids is that JUMEME has carefully selected communities where a mini-grid can be integrated into existing economic activities to boost its output, or where it can be the base for essential public services.

JUMEME engages with local stakeholders before a project is developed so that the company can account for specifications that will ensure its mini-grid is configured to local infrastructure needs. For example, JUMEME has tailored its mini-grids to specifically provide power to milling operations, to re-establish local water treatment, and to power health centres. Thanks to the reliable power connection provided by JUMEME, the health centre in Bwisya has even developed into a hospital.

The potential to power much-needed services is attractive to the communities themselves but also project financiers, particularly grantors, who are looking to maximize the impact of their investment in terms of job creation or catalyzing community development, says Schiefermueller. He adds that JUMEME’s ability to attract grant funding has been pivotal to the company’s scaling over the past few years and argues that grant funding is a crucial piece for making mini-grids more viable across Africa. “Grid infrastructure in the Western world is always financed through public means, so we should expect the same to happen in Africa,” he says.

What JUMEME has proved thus far is that investment in mini-grid businesses can translate into broad public benefits, including livelihoods for local entrepreneurs and quality services that preserve people’s health.

Photo credit: JUMEME

Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) delivery partner and multinational utility EDP - Energias de Portugal is exemplifying the role the private sector can have in supporting Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) – affordable and clean energy for all by 2030.

EDP’s first edition of the Access to Energy Fund was launched last fall, with 450,000 Euros earmarked for promoting access to energy in remote areas without access to the electricity grid.

Now, EDP has announced that this money will be allocated to six sustainable and clean energy projects across East Africa, notably in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi.

According to the 2018 Tracking SDG7: The Energy Progress Report report, 600 million people across Africa do not have any electricity, with millions more having only intermittent access to power. The consequences of these access gaps are far-reaching, limiting opportunities for quality education and health care.

"Access to energy has the potential to play a revolutionary role in emerging countries, being an essential tool for a society to foster opportunities and equality", António Mexia, president of EDP, explained in announcing the Access to Energy Fund’s recipients.

Building partnerships across the spectrum of stakeholders is at the heart of all that SEforALL does to 'change the game' on sustainable energy and accelerate the pace of progress towards SDG7. This includes supporting private sector partners, like EDP, in developing innovative solutions that close energy access gaps.

EDP’s Access to Energy Fund places the company’s financial support behind a series of initiatives that will impact upwards of 55,000 people, of whom ten thousand will be impacted directly. Co-operative Bank Foundation, SAVIC Africa, UN-Habitat, Girl MOVE, Energía Sin Fronteras Foundation and Sustainable Investments and Development Initiatives were selected from a list of 108 entities who applied for the first edition of the fund.

In Kenya, Co-operative Bank Foundation will install solar greenhouses to power irrigation systems in 12 schools to ensure that there will be adequate supply of food throughout the year while providing energy access for 6,000 people. Meanwhile, SAVIC Africa's OKAPI Green Energy project will build a 12 kWp photovoltaic mini-grid at Kakuma Refugee Camp with smart metering technology to provide electricity to 150 homes and 50 business clients.

In Mozambique, the Girl MOVE Academy's "Energy for a Better Future" program will create a 30 kWp solar energy plant for an ECOCampus and IT center for training a new generation of female leaders. UN-Habitat will build solar energy systems to supply 12 classrooms at two schools affected by natural disasters. In addition to promoting access to education for 1,300 people, the initiative also covers the installation of emergency alert systems, internet access and charging stations, which could generate revenue for schools.

Energía Sin Fronteras Foundation will offer 25.9kWp photovoltaic panels to provide electricity at St. Mary's Rehabilitation Center in Malawi so that it will be able to provide 24-hour medical care and clean water to patients.

The Sustainable Investments and Development Initiatives (SIDI) will also allow 1,500 fishermen and commercial and public facilities to access energy through a 10 kWp photovoltaic mini-grid that will enable the generation, storage and distribution of power to a remote island in Tanzania.

These recipients were selected according to criteria such as social impact, partnerships, sustainability, potential for expansion and number of beneficiaries, work in the areas of education, health, water and agriculture, business and community. Each one received financial support ranging from 25,000 to 100,000 Euros based on their commitment to implement their projects by the beginning of next year.

Read more about the selected initiatives.

*EDP President António Mexia is the Chair of the Administrative Board of Sustainable Energy for All

Energies de Portugal (EDP), a Sustainable Energy for All Delivery Partner, has announced the launch of an energy access fund that will allocate about €500,000 annually to promote renewable energy projects in developing countries.

The application process for the inaugural program is open from October 22 to November 25, 2018.

The fund invites organizations from around the world, both profit and non-profit, to help develop projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. The selection of these four countries reflects the Group’s strategy this year to prioritize investments in East Africa due to the region’s greater political stability and dynamic economic development.

The initiative is part of EDP’s announcement in May that it would provide €12 million under its long-standing access to energy (A2E) program over the next three years to promote universal access to sustainable energy in developing countries, with 200,000 people expected to benefit.

“Access to energy must be a concern and priority for all of us. As part of our energy access strategy, which aims to benefit more than 200,000 people over the next three years, we have launched an investment fund for renewable solution projects with a relevant impact in developing countries,” said EDP Group CEO António Mexia, who is also Chair of the Administrative Board of Sustainable Energy for All.

The A2E CSR Fund Program will focus on five areas in which energy plays a crucial role: education, health, water and agriculture, income generation and community projects. The projects will be selected according to criteria such as social impact, partnerships, sustainability, scalability, and the number of beneficiaries.

Funding for each project will range between €25,000 and €100,000, with the fund covering up to 75% of total project costs for non-profit entities and up to 50% of total project costs for for-profit entities.

The project selection process will be concluded on December 21, 2018. The allocation of the funds will be formalized in January and all the projects must be implemented during 2019.

EDP is committed to contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to help transform the way energy is produced, distributed and consumed. Access to energy is a necessary condition to break the poverty cycle and allow the social and economic development of remote rural areas.

Lisbon-based EDP is the world’s third largest electricity production company, providing electricity to 10 million customers in 14 countries on four continents, with almost 70% of its energy produced from renewable resources.

More information, including regulations and application forms, are available here.

Photo credit: EDP