Objective
- Improve understanding of energy access in displacement settings and support a shift to clean, reliable, affordable services (electricity + cooking).
- Develop actionable guidance that enables inclusion of refugees in development and government-led energy programmes.
Method
- Combine research + community-based implementation with partners (incl. UNHCR and key regional actors).
- Conduct multi-dimensional assessments of 16 humanitarian energy implementations across Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya.
- Analyse projects against criteria: protection, health, acceptability, affordability, self-reliance, environment.
- Case study design: 2 cooking-related + 2 electricity-related projects per country.
Results
- Documented that energy poverty in camps is severe: limited electricity access and high dependence on biomass, linked to health risks, environmental degradation, and protection concerns (incl. SGBV risk during fuel collection).
- Produced Energy Access Case Studies in Displacement Settings (2023) with replication guidelines and insights on challenges and transferability across contexts.
- Generated analytical frameworks to guide more inclusive, scalable programming.
Discussion
- “One-size-fits-all” top-down, technology-led approaches often fail because contexts differ by infrastructure, legal status, services, socio-economic and socio-cultural factors.
- Energy scarcity can amplify community tensions and undermine social cohesion, while improved access strengthens wellbeing, safety, livelihoods, and service delivery.
- Sustainable solutions require addressing power imbalances and ensuring community ownership and fit with local systems/value chains.
Recommendations for future research
- Comparative studies on what drives successful replication across different settlement types (camp-like, urban, rural).
- Longitudinal evaluation of impacts on protection outcomes, especially SGBV risk reduction linked to cooking fuel changes and lighting.
- Deeper analysis of affordability and financing models that work for refugees and host communities (incl. tariffs, subsidies, market-based options).
- Research on how to institutionalise refugee inclusion in national energy plans and utility-led service models.
- More evidence on behavioural preferences and adoption (clean cooking practices, willingness-to-pay, maintenance and after-sales systems).
You can find the links to the Energy Access Case Studies in Displacement Settings here:
