By Anita Chebii
Energy is the basic ingredient for any economic activity. Its unavailability affects the society and country’s’ development as a whole. At domestic level, it refers to the inability of a household to achieve their daily living energy needs like cooking, lighting, cooling or heating. Energy for productive use is linked to growth and development. It is needed to address development challenges such as health, education, climate change, poverty and food security just to mention but a few. Energy poverty greatly undermines the productive link between energy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
According to International Energy Agency, nearly 1.2 billion people still have no access to electricity. Geographically, the distribution is uneven in developing and developed countries, with Asia and Sub Saharan Africa’s distribution taking up to 95 percent.
“Energy for All” is a worldwide slogan that ensures affordability, accessibility and sustainability of electricity to all. Its major purpose is to alleviate energy poverty in all countries around the world. Energy poverty however, does not follow this slogan placing the burden on to old men, poor women and girls living in rural areas.
Despite the increase in energy access in many communities, availability of modern energy access is still lagging behind in Sub-Saharan Africa. Around 85 percent of rural population has no access to electricity leaving them to depend on biomass fuels such as fuel wood, charcoal and animal waste for cooking and heating. The high dependence on biomass fuels will have serious consequences for the rural poor.
According to WHO, 1.6 Million people die prematurely due to indoor smoking and this number is expected to rise as population grows. Without access to modern energy, communities’ dependent on traditional biomass are already suffering the most devastating effects. For hundreds and millions of people, energy poverty will continue to be an aspect of overall deprivation.
In order to curb the energy poverty, there is need to develop tools to support the monitoring and reporting of progress towards widespread energy access. The notion of viewing collection and managing of primary sources of household fuel as women’s responsibility is difficult and time consuming. This has a ripple effect on women lack of proper access to education and income, making it difficult to escape the poverty circle.
There is also need to come up with energy access programs that have special focus on women in order to alleviate them from energy poverty. New options for energy access and sustainable livelihoods, like small-scale biofuels production, can have tremendous benefits for rural women, their families and communities.
Government policies should be put in place to ensure eradication and mitigation of energy poverty. Electricity is one of the pillars on which education, agriculture, industries and health lean on. As such, the universalization of the access to modern energy in the world is of fundamental importance: eradication of poverty and reduction of fossil fuels dependence.
Anita Chebii is a country ambassador at Student Energy and a volunteer at The Eco-Mindset.