Global Replication Program
Facilitating energy access ecosystems across geographies
Practice to policy: Plugging into global SDG7 conversations
Effective replication of solutions and processes towards closing global energy access gaps
Access to energy plays a catalytic role in the overall upliftment of developing economies by empowering the poor. This access when created in a holistic manner to combine technology, finance and social aspects can greatly support agriculture, education and health services, as well as household well-being by enabling income generation and thus create safety nets for the poor to withstand shocks or stresses.
Hence, SELCO’s journey over the last two decades has been critical in understanding the importance of the development of ecosystems surrounding energy access while facilitating the processes and innovations that create a conducive environment for the deployment of clean energy services across different contexts.
Today, the philosophy of energy ecosystem development has become ever more relevant across various geographies, especially the ones which are lagging behind in achieving SDG7.
The Global Replication Program at SELCO Foundation tries to address the challenges in these geographies by
(i) facilitating and capacitating local ecosystem partners to establish local ownership towards sustainable energy implementations.
(ii) share critical learning for scaling and replication across other contexts with partners where parallel contexts exist thus shortening the learning curve to not repeat similar mistakes.
(iii) act as a platform for initiating global conversations such that sustainable energy is integrated into other verticals and can be a benchmark to sharpen our processes and partnerships to achieve goals in a sustainable manner vs simply targeting numeric metrices.
Energy Ecosystem Development in Tanzania
Laying foundation through a Learning Exchange Visit
Tanzania and India share similar roots in its nation building philosophy of self-reliance and social justice to creating a level playing field via socio-economic development for all.
The lessons learnt in SELCO’s last mile energy access deployment can be extended to establish sustainable decentralized energy ecosystems in the East-African nation, and the parallels can be drawn from Tanzania’s innovation that could be relevant to many regions in India as well.
So, to facilitate that SELCO Foundation hosted eleven leaders in the renewable energy and development sector from Tanzania from 26th Nov to 3rd Dec. The Learning Exchange Visit included in-depth discussions, mutual knowledge and experience sharing through interactive sessions in Bangalore, and on-field exposure visits to a spectrum of energy access solutions across the coastal region of Karnataka.
Summary of the Learning Exchange Visit
Sessions from experts, field visits & interactive discussions towards laying foundation for future work in Tanzania
The on-field activities were centred around SELCO’s Manipal centre which was established with the partnership of Bharatiya Vikas Trust (BVT), Manipal, during the early days of SELCO. For three days, the delegates visited various energy interventions across Udupi & Kundapura taluks.
The visits not only provided an in-depth perspective towards how innovative the technology, financing and other aspects of successful energy access interventions could be, but also gave them an opportunity of having a one to one interaction with rural end users that would help them in drawing parallels to similar scenarios in Tanzania.
The on-field visits included solar powered milking machine intervention at Muddumane developed in partnership with Ksheera Enterprise. Further, they saw different home-lighting solutions implemented through innovative financial linkages; livelihood center at Namma Bhoomi in Kundapura; livelihood solutions in the form of pottery, sewing machine, blacksmith blower and photocopy centres; governmental level interventions at Kerady Grama panchayat; and sessions from experts invited from various sectors including skill development from DATC Chitradurga & Hamsa Chaitanya Co-operative Society.
On the last two days of the visit, the delegates provided a comprehensive insight into the renewable energy ecosystem scenario in Tanzania from their individual and organizational perspectives. There were several major representatives from various energy sectors — from skill development, innovation, energy enterprises to the head of association of financial institutions of Tanzania. Eng. Estomih Sawe, the Executive Director of TaTEDO, brings decade long experience in the creation of vibrant innovation and technology business model and ecosystem to deliver social and economic benefits to Tanzania and the East Africa Region.
The visits and the engaging sessions over the week provided Eng. Sawe the insight into the energy ecosystem facilitation innovations happened within the communities across South India, and he suggested that the synergy could help in connecting the dots between the similarities India and Tanzania in building last mile energy access that help in creating safety net for the poor.
Apart from Eng. Sawe, Dr. Donath Olomi, the CEO of the Institute of Management and Entrepreneurship Development (IMED), Ms. Winnie Terry, Executive Secretary of Tanzania Association of Microfinance Institutions (TAMFI) and other energy ecosystem champions have shared their invaluable experiences that would help in addressing similar challenges both the countries are facing in terms of basic energy access.
Their visit concluded with sessions on sharing how their visit can feed into developing or strengthening an ecosystem in Tanzania such that they do not repeat the mistakes made by SELCO and others as they find solutions today and in the future.
The program was introduced by Ms. Sarah Alexander, Senior Advisor of SELCO Foundation. Dr. Harish Hande, Founder of SELCO and Mr. Thomas Pullankev, Senior Advisor for SELCO Foundation. This visit will be a foundational stone to cultivate a working group of champions who can shape solution pathways through implementations and advocacy to develop sustainable solutions for the communities in Tanzania.
