Link to article: Poverty alleviation and access to sustainable energy services

Link to: Pre-feasibility study for an improved cook stoves project in Northern Ghana

The challenge

Lack of access to adequate, affordable, reliable, safe and environmentally benign energy is an increasingly severe constraint to development across the world. The number of people without that access - even to meet their most basic needs - is staggering. For instance, two billion people currently lack clean, safe options for cooking and must depend on traditional biomass sources that are becoming more costly and less sustainable.

Many poor people regard better ways to meet their domestic energy needs as a development priority. Technologies used in poorer households tend to be extremely inefficient and frequently cost far more than those used by better off families. In many cultures, the burden of meeting domestic energy needs falls especially hard on women who are expected to find the fuel required for cooking.

CARE is working on programmes and projects that take a pro-poor approach to sustainable energy and aim to benefit poorer, more vulnerable and marginalised people. Our goal is to implement energy projects that achieve Gold Standard certification, comply with CARE's own carbon standards and take gender equity into account by ensuring that all energy initiatives consider specific impacts on women.

Energy can play a crucial role in improving the lives of poor people. However, this will require the growth of a people-centred, rights-based approach to energy that goes beyond technical issues to deliver energy services meeting poor peoples' distinct circumstances.

CARE is developing energy projects that ensure poor people have a voice in decision-making processes and reflect a deep understanding of the links between energy and poverty reduction. CARE is also engaged at local, national and international levels to establish pro-poor policies based on real evidence of the impact of energy on poor people.