Seminar Series Successfully Concludes Partnership

We are pleased to announce the conclusion of the digital seminar series, ‘Maximising the Impacts of Energy Access on People’s Development Opportunities’. In partnership with the ACCESS Coalition’s Learning Group, we have conducted five seminars, each featuring expert speakers who shared knowledge and experience from their work.

The inextricable link between energy and virtually all the SDGs is increasingly recognised. While there is an active debate about how to accelerate the achievement of the universal energy access goal, less focus has been given to the question of how to maximise the development effects of energy access.

• The first seminar sets the scene for the series by exploring aspects crucial to maximising contributions to multiple SDGs. Our guests were Dr Long Seng To, Joint Director of STEER at Loughborough University; Angelica Shamerina, Advisor at the GEF Small Grants Programme, UNDP; and Grace Ronoh, Programme Officer at the ACCESS Coalition.
• The second seminar focused on highlighting the importance of understanding and integrating the contextual and cultural aspects of people’s lives and capacities into the conception and realisation of energy projects. Our panellists were Ayu Abdullah, Co-Executive Director of Energy Action Partners (ENACT), and Emmanuel Cyoy Ngeywo, a consultant on energy delivery models (EDMs).
• The third seminar demonstrates that, in order for energy to effectively improve livelihoods, people must have the opportunity to use it productively. Luciana Proietti (Co-founder and President of Foundation 500RPM), Victor Gathogo (Energy Advisor at SNV) and Temitope Udo-Affia (Technical Assistance Coordinator and Market Development at GET.transform) were invited to share their experiences and discuss how energy access projects can create opportunities for productive use.
• The fourth edition begins with an acknowledgement of people’s specific aspirations and opportunities within their local context, asking how local rootedness can be applied to energy planning and policy processes on a much larger scale, such as at provincial or national level. Two case studies of inclusive and integrated energy planning processes were presented by the two panellists, Gabriel Sundoro Wynn (Energy Access Lead at Green Empowerment) and Elizabeth Wanja (Coordinator of the Kenya Climate Change Working Group).
• The fifth and final seminar considers how energy access interventions can effectively integrate gender responsiveness to empower women. Our expert speakers were Silvia Sartori (Gender & Energy Consultant), Thabit Mikidadi (Programme Manager at TANGSEN, Tanzania) and Ashma Pakhrin
  (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Expert at ADB TA 9334 in Nepal) will share practical experiences from their work in Tanzania and Nepal.

You can find a the comprehensive seminar takeaways, recording and slides on the links above or in the webinar section of our website. We would like to thank our colleagues from the ACCESS Coalition and our insightful expert panellists for making this seminar series possible!