Energy Access: Illusion or Reality for the Poor?

2005 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 743-761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Latsoucabe Fall
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Social Trends ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Access Rate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Electricity Access

Electricity access is vital for alleviating poverty, and reversing the past and current negative economic and social trends in developing countries. However, despite efforts undertaken so far, the technological accomplishments and so-called breakthroughs, as well as global wealth, the population without electricity access in developing countries is still tremendous. In Sub-Saharan Africa, at least three-quarters of the population currently have no access to electricity; and over the past three decades, the number of people without access to electricity in this region has doubled. Moreover, if we applied the electricity connection rates of the past decade, one must wait until at least the end of this century, before achieving the electricity access objective set for the region. Some experts contend that electricity reform options experienced in Africa have not yet reached the expected beneficial effects, in terms of improvement of the electricity access rate for the poor, and that they were not designed to address the energy problems of the poor, but were explicitly aimed at achieving other objectives. It is thus well founded to raise the following questions: Is the WSSD objective of energy access realistic or utopian, particularly for Africa? Is the UN Millennium Development Goal of halving the number of African poor by 2015 a ‘white vow’? How can we reverse the past and current negative trends and move towards the achievement of ambitious yet realistic objectives of widespread energy access?

Genetic engineering and social justice: A reflection on Amartya Sen’s capability approach

2020 ◽  
pp. 205789112090768
Author(s):  
Gerry F Arambala
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Genetic Engineering ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Medical Science ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Poor People ◽  
Positive Health ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sub Saharan

Over the past decades, biomedical researchers have made great progress in finding the treatment for many diseases which have been considered in the past as incurable. The struggle for longevity and positive health has been addressed by medical science. People who can afford it are assured by the promise of genetic engineering. But while there has been considerable development in the treatment of diseases, the number of mortalities in poor countries remains high, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia. Around 8 million people die each year worldwide due to poverty-related health issues. Despite the advancement in the treatment of diseases, poor people in most of the developing countries worldwide are dying each year. This article will argue that human poverty and the existence of infectious diseases are inseparable social phenomena that affect the fate of the poor in developing countries. Following Amartya Sen, this article will argue that access to advanced health care services should be affordable to all, and should form part of individual freedoms that the national policies of a country must secure.

Utility privatisation in Sub-Saharan Africa: a case study of water

2003 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kate Bayliss
Keyword(s):  
Financial Management ◽  
Development Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Past ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Privatisation Process ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Impact

Over the past twenty years, the focus of development policy has shifted from the state to the private sector. Privatisation is now central to utility reform in much of SSA. This paper sets out developments in water privatisation and reviews the evidence regarding its impact. Water privatisation has been carried out to some degree in at least fourteen countries in the region, and many other governments are at various stages in the privatisation process. However, in some cases privatisation has been difficult to achieve, and a few countries have successfully provided water under public ownership. Evidence on the impact of privatisation indicates that the performance of privatised utilities has not changed dramatically, but that enterprises have continued to perform well, or not so well, depending both on their state when they were privatised and on the wider economic context. The evidence points to internal improvements in terms of financial management. However, governments face considerable difficulties in attracting investors and regulating private utilities. Furthermore, privatisation fails to address some of the fundamental constraints affecting water utilities in SSA, such as finance, the politicised nature of service delivery, and lack of access for the poor. A preoccupation with ownership may obscure the wider goals of reform.

scholarly journals Sub-Saharan Africa Is Lighting Up: Uneven Progress on Electrification

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ofei D. Mante
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Electricity Generation ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Universal Access ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Average Growth ◽  
Financial Flows ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Electricity Access

This research paper provides a regional review of the state of electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), focusing on installed capacity, electricity generation, the growth of renewable energy, electricity consumption, government investment, public financial flows, and several major initiatives. The study contrasts electrification between 1990 and 2010 with recent efforts and identifies countries that are consistently making progress and those that lag. The analyses show signs of progress on scaling up SSA power infrastructure and increasing electricity access, particularly in the Eastern and Western sub-regions. The installed generation capacity expanded at an average rate of 2.43 GW/year between 2005 and 2015. Renewable energy is growing, particularly solar, wind, and geothermal; about 9.7 GW of renewable energy capacity was installed between 2010 and 2016. Over this period, the net electricity generation in SSA increased at 9.1 TWh/year, more than double the historical average growth of 4.02 TWh/year (1990–2010). In general, the study found that rates of electrification across the entire region are more than twice the historical rates, and an average of at least 26 million people are now gaining access to electricity yearly. Nevertheless, progress is uneven across SSA. As of 2016, almost half of the population without electricity access live in Nigeria, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Uganda. Quantitative analysis suggests that about 70 million people in SSA would have to gain access every year from 2017 to achieve universal access by 2030. Overall, SSA countries with national programs on energy access supported by policy/regulatory framework and infrastructure investment are making progress.

Banking in Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 1075-1112
Author(s):  
Thorsten Beck ◽  
Robert Cull ◽  
Patricio Valenzuela
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Banking Systems ◽  
Financial Innovations ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Sub Saharan

This chapter takes stock of the current state of banking systems across Sub-Saharan Africa and discusses recent developments, including innovations that might help Africa leapfrog more traditional banking models. Using an array of different data, the chapter documents that African banking systems are shallow but stable. African banks are well capitalized and over-liquid, but lend less to the private sector than banks in non-African developing countries. African enterprises and households are less likely to use financial services than their peers in other developing countries, although there has been significant progress over the past decade. The chapter also describes a number of financial innovations across the continent that can help overcome different barriers to financial inclusion and have helped to expand the bankable and the banked population. The chapter ends with discussing current challenges for policymakers and academics, including the lack of (data on) long-term finance and the supervisory challenges stemming from increasing cross-border banking in the region.

Renewable Energy for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Sub-Saharan Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 1116 ◽  
pp. 33-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mukhtar Bello
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Energy Resources ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Renewable Energy Resources ◽  
Energy Services ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Sub Saharan

Worldwide, developing countries struggle to overcome numerous problems that constrain their socio-economic development. Sub-Saharan African countries represent a good example of developing countries with serious developmental challenges. Thus, this chapter presents a critical analysis on the socio-economic situation in Sub-Saharan Africa and the links between limited access to modern energy services and the prevailing socio-economic circumstance. It discusses the expected roles of renewable energy technologies in increasing energy access in the region and highlights important factors that influence extensive deployment of renewable energy technologies for sustainable development. Reliable statistical data on both the Human Development Index (HDI) and Energy Development Index (EDI) rankings indicate that most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa lie far below the world average and as a region, Sub-Saharan Africa scores least. There is high level of poverty and inadequate social services, which is attributed to acute shortage of modern energy services. In Sub-Saharan Africa, over 70% of the population lack reliable access to electricity and modern cooking fuels, which represents a large proportion of the „energy poor‟ in the world. Lack of access to modern energy services limits economic and agricultural opportunities, negatively affects the environment, promotes gender inequality and constrains delivery of social services such as health care delivery system and education. Thus, one of the biggest developmental challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa is to find effective and pragmatic solutions for increasing energy access. Sub-Saharan Africa is richly endowed with renewable energy resources such as biomass, wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal, which largely remain unexploited. The renewable energy resources are widely available throughout the region unlike the conventional fossil-based resources, that is, coal, oil and gas, which are concentrated within very few countries. Therefore, the renewable energy resources if properly and fully utilized can provide clean, affordable and reliable energy services that will promote socio-economic activities and support sustainable development.

scholarly journals The Technopolitics of Infrastructure Breakdowns: A Historical Overview of Dumsor

2020 ◽  
pp. 234-247
Author(s):  
Claudia Serwah Prempeh
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Data ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Access Rate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Electricity Access

In sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana is considered a beacon of success because of its high electricity access rate: 84.3 per cent as at 2018. Despite this success, the sector is entangled in a crisis. Crisis as used here refers to the crisis of electricity supply where supply deficits results in prolonged periods of blackouts and load rationing. Between 2012 and 2016, blackouts christened dumsor (Twi word for off/on) became a regular experience in Ghana with more blackouts than electricity supplied: 24 hours lights out, 12 hours light supplied. Using a historical narrative, this article provides a summarized account of how dumsor unravelled- the momentous cascading socio-economic interruption dumsor caused, the dramatic user responses it evoked and the ways in which it became the subject of intense political debate. Primary data was gathered from ethnographic fieldwork and secondary data from online and archival sources. This narration reveals the generative potential of uncertain infrastructure and its ability to foreground the “under the radar” interdependences between infrastructure and political power. It details how an “imperfect” electric infrastructure produced new user subjectivities, challenged the conduct of electricity governance and revealed electricity provisioning to be a starkly contested technopolitical process. Keywords: Technopolitics, Blackouts, Dumsor, Infrastructure

Financing Energy Access in Africa

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Kayode Oniemola ◽  
Jane Ezirigwe
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Sustainable Technologies ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Diesel Motors

To achieve universal energy access will attract huge capital investments. If sub-Saharan Africa is to realize anything close to the ambitious goals set for its energy access, then new actors, innovative funding mechanisms and sustainable technologies will have to be attracted. Finance is needed for activities such as rural electrification, clean cooking facilities, diesel motors and generators, other renewable energy technologies, oil and gas infrastructures, etc. Finance is also needed in research and development of suitable technologies and funding options as well as investment in the capacity to formulate and implement sound energy policies. This chapter examines the varied financing options for energy access in sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that with appropriate laws in place and effective mechanism for implementation, African countries can significantly engage private sector financing, international financial institutions and foreign donors. The role of the law here will be in creating an enabling environment for financing.

scholarly journals A Review of Energy Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa as a Transition Pathway to Energy Democracy

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2128
Author(s):  
Amollo Ambole ◽  
Kweku Koranteng ◽  
Peris Njoroge ◽  
Douglas Logedi Luhangala
Keyword(s):  
Stakeholder Engagement ◽  
Energy Systems ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Energy Projects ◽  
Global North ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Energy Justice ◽  
Design Proposal ◽  
Ssa Countries

Energy communities have received considerable attention in the Global North, especially in Europe, due to their potential for achieving sustainable energy transitions. In Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), energy communities have received less attention partly due to the nascent energy systems in many emerging SSA states. In this paper, we argue that these nascent energy systems offer an opportunity to co-create energy communities that can tackle the energy access challenges faced by most SSA countries. To understand how such energy communities are realised in the sub-region, we undertake a systematic review of research on energy communities in 46 SSA countries. Our findings show that only a few energy projects exhibit the conventional characteristics of energy communities; In most of these projects, local communities are inadequately resourced to institute and manage their own projects. We thus look to stakeholder engagement approaches to propose co-design as a strategy for strengthening energy communities in SSA. We further embed our co-design proposal in energy democracy thinking to argue that energy communities can be a pathway towards equity and energy justice in SSA. We conclude that energy communities can indeed contribute to improving energy access in Africa, but they need an enabling policy environment to foster their growth and sustainability.

scholarly journals BioLPG for Clean Cooking in Sub-Saharan Africa: Present and Future Feasibility of Technologies, Feedstocks, Enabling Conditions and Financing

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3916
Author(s):  
Kimball C. Chen ◽  
Matthew Leach ◽  
Mairi J. Black ◽  
Meron Tesfamichael ◽  
Francis Kemausuor ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Waste ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Energy Access ◽  
Liquefied Petroleum Gas ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Private Sector Investment ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Public And Private Sector

Energy supply for clean cooking is a priority for Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG, i.e., propane or butane or a mixture of both) is an economically efficient, cooking energy solution used by over 2.5 billion people worldwide and scaled up in numerous low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Investigation of the technical, policy, economic and physical requirements of producing LPG from renewable feedstocks (bioLPG) finds feasibility at scale in Africa. Biogas and syngas from the circular economic repurposing of municipal solid waste and agricultural waste can be used in two groundbreaking new chemical processes (Cool LPG or Integrated Hydropyrolysis and Hydroconversion (IH2)) to selectively produce bioLPG. Evidence about the nature and scale potential of bioLPG presented in this study justifies further investment in the development of bioLPG as a fuel that can make a major contribution toward enabling an SSA green economy and universal energy access. Techno-economic assessments of five potential projects from Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda illustrate what might be possible. BioLPG technology is in the early days of development, so normal technology piloting and de-risking need to be undertaken. However, fully developed bioLPG production could greatly reduce the public and private sector investment required to significantly increase SSA clean cooking capacity.

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