UNDP and Access to Energy Services

UNDP’s focus areas in development assistance as agreed with the Executive Board, is described in the Multi Year Funding Framework (MYFF) 2004-2007 which covers all funded programmes from regular and other resources. The MYFF is divided into 30 services lines which span five “Goals”. These are:

1. Achieving the MDGs and reducing human poverty

2. Fostering democratic governance

3. Energy and environment for sustainable development

4. Crises prevention and recovery

5. Responding to HIV/AIDs

Within Goal 3, the third of six services line is 3.3 “Access to sustainable energy services” in the MYFF. Goal 3 is entitled “Energy and Environment for Sustainable Development” to communicate UNDP’s clear position that energy is not a sub-element of environmental programming and that energy is linked to all three aspects of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental outcomes). Energy priorities are further sub-divided into four categories, or outcomes (known as “core results”) that form the basis for country, regional and global programme development organization-wide. The four Core Results within Service Line 3.3 “Access to Sustainable Energy” are:

Core Result 1:            National policy frameworks that reflect the role of energy in poverty reduction and sustainable development established

Core Result 2:            Access to energy services, electricity or cleaner fuels in rural areas increased

Core Result 3:            Low emissions energy technologies including renewable energy, energy efficiency and/or advanced fossil fuel technologies introduced

Core Result 4:            Access to energy investment financing through the CDM or public private partnerships expanded

In our year 2004 reporting on country level outcomes and results, 70 countries reported results in the service line of access to sustainable energy services. Over 90% of country programme operations have energy and/or climate related projects in the current programming cycle. UNDP regular resources, cost sharing and the Thematic Trust Fund on Energy account for 40% of programme funding for energy while 60%, the largest share, is funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its associated cost sharing. There are a total of 217 active energy projects in UNDP, excluding the GEF Small Grants Programme. UNDP regular resources devoted to energy total $49 million while those from the GEF provide an additional $270 million. Including GEF leveraged co-financing, the total UNDP energy portfolio amounts to $1.36 billion in project assistance to developing countries. Including cost sharing, UNDP regular resources and the GEF, total funding in the area of access to energy services is $300 million.

UNDP has a global network of over 400 professionals working in the energy and environment field at the New York, regional center and country levels who are all connected through an electronic global knowledge network which can be used to field project specific questions or share experiences across regions.

The main support for improving access to energy services are reported in relation to core results 1 and 2. UNDP’s primary orientation in addressing increased access to energy services, especially in rural areas, is to link these activities to poverty reduction, job creation and gender equity concerns. Many of these projects do employ renewable energy technology as the service delivery means so there is not a neat division between access and renewable energy projects. UNDP also supported for integrated community energy service delivery through multi-functional platforms driven by diesel generation in West Africa, while efforts in south Asia employ micro hydro and biomass energy systems to deliver rural energy services. In addition to such technology interventions to actually deliver services, UNDP is active in supporting multi-stakeholder dialogues and planning processes to incorporate energy objectives and investment targets in national poverty reduction plans and development strategies.

MYFF results in 2004 in the area of access to energy services, showed 19% of all results reported in the area of energy planning linked to poverty reduction and national development strategic (core result 1) while core result 2, increasing access to energy in rural area showed 25% of all results in energy. Together this accounts for 44% of all reported energy results in UNDP which can be attributed to progress in the thematic area of access to energy services. There are a total of 83 active projects in this area (excluding the Small Grants Programme) which directly address access to energy services, mostly in rural contexts. Africa, Asia and Latin America have roughly equal numbers of projects (25, 21, 20 respectively) for project portfolio values of $78, 64 and 135 million respectively. Including cost sharing, UNDP regular resources and the GEF, total funding in the area of access to energy services is $300 million.

Examples of country level projects reported were national dialogues to link energy to the PRSPs and national planning frameworks supported in Burundi, Central African Republic, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro in 2004. Support for national action plans for rural energy in were supported in Nicaragua and Nepal, and incorporating gender concerns in energy access projects took place in Mali, Senegal and Burkina Faso. UNDP financed expanded access to energy in rural areas in Chile, Egypt and Kazakhstan, and promoted LPG and/or biofuels as cooking gases in South Africa, Morocco, India and Ghana.

As part of commitment to WSSD follow up, UNDP  is a central partner in the Global Village Energy Partnership (GVEP) which has the specific objective of expanding access to energy services. GVEP is active in 25 countries. UNDP was the lead partner in providing support for GVEP in seven countries in 2004 and worked in collaboration with others in many more. GVEP activities in this area are funded through projects initiated in 2004 through the Thematic Trust Fund on Energy. Country level consultation on linking energy and poverty reduction and supporting national stakeholder dialogues were supported in Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, and Cameroon working with other development partners such as ESMAP, USAID, DFID and the Netherlands. A second WSSD partnership the LP Gas Rural Energy Challenge, is working with industry in 6 countries to expand access to LP Gas for household and productive uses by addressing safety, regulatory, financing and technology bottlenecks to wider use. The LPG Challenge is operational in Honduras, Ghana, South Africa, Morocco, China and Vietnam. Plans are underway to expand activities to additional countries.

Non-GVEP related projects also support access to energy service in rural areas as part of regular programme cooperation in many countries. Projects in  Hungary and Slovakia tackled the issue of low energy services for the disadvantaged Roma communities through a situation analysis, detailed surveys of energy needs, pilot projects such as brick stove building, forest waste shredding and window improvements, documenting the results and sharing them at a national workshop (early 2005).   In India, the TTF project on renewable energy for rural livelihoods worked closely with five governments and NGOs in 5 provinces to identify appropriate technology systems such as solar, biomass, and hydropower for rural electrification in 60 villages, along with strategy formulation on training for hydropower station operations and a national resource centre for renewable energy mapping. In DPRK, UNDP has completed an assessment of rural energy needs, with appropriate solutions proposed in the draft Sustainable Rural Energy Development document on addressing the gap in rural energy demand and supply and a medium term rural energy investment strategy. In Tanzania, renewable energy technologies were scaled up in 3 districts from an earlier GEF biodiversity projects amounting to a construction of over 2000 improved cook stoves, planting of nearly 130,000 jatropha and other tree seedlings and 1 biogas plant. This resulted in increased incomes for stove artisans and tree nursery owners, health, time and more economic benefits especially for women, and increased forest conservation and regeneration. The Turkey project was catalytic in demonstrating the use of geothermal energy in greenhouse farming in a rural province and creating potential income generation opportunities for farmers.  In Ghana, the TTF project on LPG substitution for woodfuel use has successfully introduced LPG cylinders in the kitchens of 2 secondary schools and 7 small-scale enterprises, formed LPG User Associations, provided over 400 LPG cylinders, stoves and accessories to these associations for channeling to communities, and developed a standards and safety regulations code of practice.

In addition the UNDP led GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP) provides grants not exceeding $50,000 directly to communities through civil society organizations has an  energy portfolio of approximately 820 projects with a total disbursement to date of over $18 million spread across 50 countries. The largest concentration is in Africa ($5.4 million), followed by Asia Pacific ($4.1 million), Latin America ($4 million) Arab States ($3 million) and Eastern Europe ($1.7 million). Examples of projects providing improved access to energy services in rural areas that are funded through the GEF SGP include fuel efficient smokeless stoves in Pakistan, improved kilns and stoves in Thailand to provide better services and reduce fuelwood consumption, linking rural villages in East Java with the national grid through enhancing the capacity of a small hydro plant, building capacity for micro enterprises to use energy in Morocco through PV, substituting rice husks for fuelwood in  bakeries in Sri Lanka, supporting the local policy framework for decentralized power systems in Kenya, and  expanding home employment in Nepal through village electrification working with the local private sector. Collaboration with the private sector to expand energy services to support productive enterprises was supported in Thailand, Vietnam, Bhutan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka through SGP grants.

UNDP also support energy access issues and energy and poverty reduction linkages through regional programme activities in West Africa as well as in Asia.

In addition to project level interventions nationally in support of  domestic development efforts, UNDP also has produced a wide range on programming tools and analysis on energy addressing  energy and poverty linkages including lessons learned from the project portfolio. This includes an examination of the impact of PV projects in Africa in term of income generation outcomes, a collection of case studies on gender and energy, a toolkit for mainstreaming gender in energy projects, an assessment of the linkages between energy and the MDGs and other studies used in global advocacy. These are all available on the UNDP website.

For more information on UNDP energy portfolio and for project briefs see www.undp.org/energy. You may also contact:

Susan McDade

Manager, Sustainable Energy Programme

UNDP – Energy and Environment Group

(212) 906 6085

Susan.mcdade@undp.org