Obtaining Local Buy-In

Local stakeholders’ involvement from project inception is fundamental, regardless of the ownership of the system. Participation of community representatives is critical to assess and monitor community demands and needs. Long-term viability of the system depends on the satisfaction of end-users and thus it is imperative to include them in planning and encourage participation from local NGOs and village leaders during each phase of the decision making process.

Information, Marketing, Education and Capacity Building

From the project inception stage, target communities must be reached via promotional programmes and regular meetings with the community leaders. Efforts must be made to maximise community awareness, involvement and support as it is vital for the project’s success.

Strategic Planning

Projects should be designed to support development of local private sector to generate increased revenue. The system design should not be driven by technological considerations but instead be adapted to the specific social and economic characteristics of the community.

The private sector/ market based solutions are attracting investments in the following two options:

a. Projects built around existing business applications or public institutions in order to increase critical mass, potential profits and local involvement. An alternative would be to support the development of local private sector as part of the project to increase the positive impacts on the community and generate the needed revenues.

b. Concentrated energy loads and bundled projects together in attractive packages is another means of increasing market size and the attractiveness of rural electrification projects. Territorial concessions are a good strategy but they need to be simplified to diminish the cost and the time involved.

Local NGOs and social enterprises play a crucial role in enabling the above key factors for implementation of energy projects on the ground. They facilitate the process of sound acceptability of community needs by the private players which helps in the end users being served better. q