Breaking the barriers of displacement and protracted crisis through inclusive approach of solar livelihood improvement in Yemen
Description
Yemen was already one of the world’s most energy insecure and water poor countries, with most of the country having lacked sustainable access to energy. The ongoing war has made the situation worse. Energy supply in Yemen for many years has been very limited due weak generation capacity, limited access, high electricity losses from the grid, and increasing demand. The Enhanced Rural Resilience in Yemen (ERRY) project intervention has addressed the above challenges by taking pathways from service delivery to livelihood improvement.
The objective of the intervention was to support displaced marginalized, youths and women to establish decentralized solar energy systems to improve access, employability skills, stable income and self-confidence. The distinguish feature of the intervention is to make solar energy accessible and affordable to all.
The intervention was in three folds (3x6 approach); provision of emergency employment opportunities, capacity building for employability skillset and support in the establishment of solar microbusinesses. In terms of emergency employment, target beneficiaries were provided income through short term cash-for-work ($6/day for 30 days) activities while rehabilitating community and productive assets such as roads leading to market, health facilities and school as well as improvement of market centers. Subsequently, target beneficiaries received basic and advance solar micro businesses training. The capacity building activities were done in close collaboration with ILO. The graduated beneficiaries from training developed two types of business proposals. First, community shops for the provision of affordable solar items such as lantern, charging equipment, operational and maintenance toolkits. Second, building SOLAR MICRO GRID to provide electricity to poor households and private sector. The first proposal was developed by individual where more than 50% are women and the second business plan was by group of women and youth. Selected individuals were also trained by vocational training institute in the target location and certified as solar technicians to support the solar micro businesses and solar micro grid for operational and maintenance services. Individuals and group were linked to the bank and seed grant ($900) was transferred to establish their business. The community based solar technicians made feasibility and consumption needs assessment to provide valuable information to micro businesses in terms of demand and supply needs. The individual solar micro businesses were to linked with micro finance network and district market center to promote selling and expand businesses. Group of women and youth for Solar Micro GRID were provided training on group management, finance and accounting, leadership as well as how to implement the business plan in phase wise manner to meet the demand and supply needs. The solar micro business and solar micro grid initiatives are unique and for the first time implemented in Yemen as income generation opportunities. Major suppliers and traders are mostly Sana’a based, has appreciated the interventions and willing to support micro businesses as their entry points to enhance access and affordability of solar services at district, sub-district and village levels.
The micro-grid stations are fully run independently by the women and youth and has made the model sustainable.
The Micro-grid station has been recently awarded by Ashden under Humanitarian Energy Category: https://www.ashden.org/winners/united-nations-development-programme-yem…
The community acceptance for solar micro-grid has been the major enabling factor in addition to the response from the market. The stations have received encouragement as well as an appreciation. There is an increasing demand to register for access to energy. The project team is working on to improve the access to financial institutions and the private sector, the bottleneck and constraints for MSMEs in Yemen.
Despite the COVID-19 impact, the micro-grid stations continue to make a profit and run with full capacity. The success of the micro-grid has let to scale up the intervention from 3 stations to 100 in the coming months in Yemen and linking them with public services as well.
The solar livelihood interventions managed to break the barriers of gender division of labor and proved that women can be engaged in skill based economic activities than only to unskilled and in-kind paid jobs in Yemen. The intervention has brought the recognition for both women and youths in the target areas that through solar livelihood activities could support communities to overcome shocks and stress of socio-economic instability. The livelihood interventions need to be built on inclusive approach by engaging women, men and youth and should not be limited to only those who have asset. Making solar intervention under ERRY project to respond to crisis and build humanitarian and development nexus is a ground-breaking practice. In terms of lessons learned, it is important to have solar market assessment at local and national level to understand the market opportunities, supply, demand and gaps in the value chain. The market assessment provides an understanding on the consumption needs and availability of solar equipment.
https://www.devex.com/news/solar-power-sales-help-women-avoid-food-inse…
Good practice and lessons learned publication link
http://www.ye.undp.org/content/yemen/en/home/library/crisis_prevention_…
The micro-grid approach has now been considered for the application of an alternative source of energy such as waste and water. The success has motivated the project team to take up the Waste to Energy and Salt to Sweet Water initiatives using the solar micro-grid model.
Deliverables & Timeline
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SDGs
Region
- Asia and Pacific
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Contact Information
Arvind Kumar, Project Manager