22 April 2013: The Energy Access Practitioner Network has released its April 2013 newsletter, featuring a practitioner’s perspective section, updates on the Practitioner Network’s activities and workshops, and information about funding opportunities, recent reports, new members, upcoming events, and other announcements.

Opening the newsletter, Richenda Van Leeuwan, Executive Director of the UN Foundation’s Energy and Climate, Energy Access Initiative, reports that the Practitioner Network is exploring opportunities to strengthen financing for members and build new partnerships in Asia, based on a workshop it held in Phnom Penh in March “Towards Universal Energy Access: An Asian Perspective.”

In a section on the “Practitioner Perspective,” the non-profit Innovation: Africa reported the results of a survey of 63 rural solar projects, finding medical clinics that installed solar-powered lighting saw registered births increase four-fold. Solar energy also improved the quality of rural medical care, in part by powering refrigerators for storing vaccines and other medications.

Van Leeuwan also reports details of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) Initiative’s High Impact Opportunity on Energy & Women’s Health, to be co-led by the UN Foundation, UN Women, and World Health Organization (WHO).

The UN Foundation established the Energy Access Practitioner Network in 2011 to identify and address market barriers to energy service delivery in support of the UN Secretary-General’s SE4All Initiative. [Energy Access Practitioner Network website] [Sign up for the Energy Access Practitioner Network Newsletter] [Energy Access Practitioner Network working groups]