Putting rural energy access projects into perspective: What lessons are relevant?

Challenges Inhibiting the Transformation of Subsistence Farming into Thriving Agri-business in Rural Uganda

“…Despite these efforts to make businesses in rural areas of Uganda thrive, large parts of rural Uganda are still trapped in subsistence production with little or no income-generating activities. A number of studies recognize that small businesses are the engine of growth for developing countries like Uganda ((Makita et al, 2010;Ortiz et al, 2013;van der Vleuten, Stam, & van der Plas, 2013). This study seeks to find out what hinders the transition from largely subsistence production to businessoriented economic activities in Ugandan rural areas, especially where funding is accessible.…”

Review on Rural Energy Access Policies

“…The current rural energy strategy and policies emphasize the nationwide use of renewable energy and clean biomass energy to achieve sustainable development in the new era, while the roles of commercial energy, such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and electricity, are frequently neglected (Wu, 2019). While there are very few countries where, apart from traditional biomass, renewable energies have been able to provide a solution to energy access for the poor, Governments has abandoned its "menu of alternatives approach" and replaced this with a "renewable energy approach" (Vleuten et al, 2013), complicating the coverage of energy needs and reducing the effective solutions.…”

“…In 2016, the Secretary-General of United Nations and the president of the World Bank called to all countries to commit themselves to universal modern energy access by 2030. Several international agencies such as the International Energy Agency, the European Union, and the Energy Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) are building scenarios about how to accomplish these purposes (Van der Vleuten, Stam and Van der Plas, 2013).…”

Informing energy projects in developing countries by leveraging lessons learnt from the water sector

“…Many proponents urge greater collaboration between the public and private sectors (Sovacool, 2013), and between corporations and NGOs (Spagnoletti & O'Callaghan, 2013); (van der Vleuten et al, 2013). This is a common idea promoted within both the energy and water sectors, and numerous examples can be found of successful innovations occurring at the intersection of market-based and NGO actions (Urmee, Harries, & Schlapfer, 2009;van der Vleuten et al, 2013). Dahan, Doh, Oetzel, and Yaziji (2010) also argue for corporate-NGO collaboration, highlighting the strengths that NGOs can bring to these partnerships.…”

“…The body of literature which discusses energy and water access related to markets and market-based approaches touches on a vast range of different topics. These include topics such as business models (Gebauer & Saul, 2014), (Sesan, Raman, Clifford, & Forbes, 2013;Wakkee, Barua, & Van Beukering, 2014;Zerriffi, 2011), (Singh, 2016); micro enterprises (Balachandra, 2011), challenges of business replicability (van der Vleuten et al, 2013); collaboration between development actors (Sovacool, 2013), (Scott, 2017), the role of large multi-national corporations (Sesan et al, 2013), microfinance (S. Groh & Taylor, 2015) and the challenges of financing (Urpelainen & Yoon, 2017), marketing, promotion and branding (G. Bensch, Grimm, Huppertz, Langbein, & Peters, 2017), and business innovation (Wiemann & Ng, 2014), amongst other topics. Market systems literature in particular emphasises access to the poorest of the poor, and the systems surrounding access, not just access to goods and services themselves.…”