18 May 2015: The UN Development Programme (UNDP) has released a toolkit for planning, designing, implementing, monitoring and evaluating energy access programmes that promote productive energy uses for improved livelihoods. The report, titled ‘The EnergyPlus Guidelines,’ was released at a UNDP-organized session on Energy for Productive Uses held at the Second SE4ALL Forum, taking place 18-21 May 2015 in New York City, US.

The objective of the EnergyPlus approach is to empower the poor, both men and women, and to contribute to sustainable human development and poverty reduction. The Guidelines were developed to assist planners and policymakers, development practitioners, civil society organizations, financial institutions and commercial enterprises, research institutions and others, and to provide guidance on how these stakeholders can collaborate. They encourage moving beyond short-term behavioral changes to long-term collaboration, through creating awareness and establishing support systems for institutions and stakeholders to fulfill their mandates.

Most of the world’s population that lacks access to electricity or improved cooking facilities live in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Productive energy use means providing access to modern energy, beyond meeting basic energy services, in order to: empower the poor to generate equitable employment and additional income; enable better access to education and health care; and satisfy lifestyle needs and improve living standards.

Seven components are presented in the Guidelines, focusing on both energy and non-energy interventions of the EnergyPlus programmes, and designed to strengthen capacities for informed planning and decision making, drive change through leadership, and stimulate markets and investments.

The components include: monitoring energy poverty and tracking progress; institutions and coordination of energy access; public finance and market incentives; energy resource availability and forecasting demand; initiating productive energy uses; and facilitating energy production and services. The EnergyPlus approach integrates these six components, while the seventh component involves scaling-up successes. [EnergyPlus Guidelines] [SE4ALL Press Release] [Energy for Productive Uses Event] [2nd SE4ALL Forum Website]