Promoting Rural Electrification in Sub-Saharan Africa: Least-Cost Modelling of Decentralized Energy-Water-Food Systems: Case Study of St. Rupert Mayer, Zimbabwe

Almost one billion people in the world still do not have access to electricity. Most of them live in rural areas of the developing world. Access to electricity in the rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa is only 28%, roughly 600 million people. The financing of rural electrification is challenging and, in order to accomplish higher private sector investments, new innovative business models have to be developed. In this paper, a new approach in the financing of microgrid electrification activities is proposed and investigated. In this approach, agriculture related businesses take the lead in the electrification activities of the surrounding communities. It is shown that the high cost of rural electrification can be met through the increased value of locally produced products, and cross-subsidization can take place in order to decrease the cost of household electrification. The approach is implemented in a case study in Rwanda, through which the possibility of local agricultural cooperatives leading electrification activities is demonstrated.

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Experimenting with RRI tools to Drive Sustainable Agri-Food Research: The SASS Case Study from Sub-Saharan Africa

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12030827 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 827 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Luca Tricarico ◽

Andrea Galimberti ◽

Ausilia Campanaro ◽

Chiara Magoni ◽

Massimo Labra

Keyword(s):

Food Systems ◽

Food System ◽

Sub Saharan Africa ◽

Innovation Development ◽

Research And Innovation ◽

Food Research ◽

Sub Saharan ◽

Definition Of ◽

Responsible Research

The need to develop experimental tools for a responsible research and innovation (RRI) framework is relevant for managing research agendas and policy making that seriously take into account the complex conditions of innovation development (linked to multidisciplinarity and interaction processes) between the researchers and their fieldwork activities. The adoption of an RRI framework is even more important for multidisciplinary and complex issues, such as the agri-food system. In this context, the SASS (Sustainable Agri-food Systems for Sustainable Development (SASS) project represents a good example for verifying the application of the RRI strategy in a varied research group committed to the development of sustainable agri-food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa. The project, which involves more than 50 researchers from different fields of knowledge and theoretical backgrounds, showed the importance of the processes of reflection, re-driving, and convergence in the definition of research objectives and strategies. This process started by experimenting with new dedicated RRI tools in order to allow interactions between the researchers, including exchanging their experience in data collection and theoretical reflection development. With respect to this analysis, it was interesting to analyze how the RRI tools and strategies have been activated between researchers and different stakeholders, generating reflections capable of re-adapting the results towards shared and accessible innovation for the extended society. Following the discussion based on the description of the SASS-RRI agenda tools and following an internal verification given from an RRI-based web survey, this contribution provides new insights, in terms of tools and strategies, to promote and refine RRI approaches. This work underlines how RRI methods have promoted internal and external interactions to connect the research objectives towards a model of open innovation.

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