Energising Development (EnDev) Kenya
Project description
Title: Energising Development (EnDev) Kenya
Commissioned by: Directorate-General for International Cooperation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), British Department for International Development (DFID), Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Country: Kenya
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Energy, Kenya
Overall term: 2006 to 2019
Context
Kenya's energy framework is one of the most well developed in sub-Saharan Africa. Numerous reforms instituted by the Kenyan Government over the past 15 years have considerably increased competition and efficiency in this sector. For example, between 2011 and 2016, the country’s installed power capacity rose by roughly 50 per cent, from 1,539 megawatts to 2,341 megawatts. During the same period, access to electricity more than doubled, from about 2,038,625 connections (26 per cent of Kenya’s total households) in 2011, to 4,890,373 connections (over 50 per cent) by 2016. Rural electrification rose to 32 per cent, mainly through electricity connections in public facilities and surrounding households.
Despite these achievements, several challenges remain, including limited access to electricity in remote areas and especially the sparsely populated northern region where less than 6 per cent of households are currently connected to the national electricity grid. Moreover, power outages are still common due to inadequate transmission and distribution technologies.
Biomass is the predominant source of energy in Kenya. The primary energy consumption (68 per cent) is derived from biomass and some 90 per cent of rural households rely on it for cooking and heating. Biomass is burned inefficiently, leading to adverse environmental impacts such as soil degradation and deforestation. The use of traditional stoves is a cause of indoor air pollution and thus smoke-related health problems.
Objective
Sustainable access to modern energy services for households, social institutions and small to medium-sized enterprises has increased.
Approach
The Energising Development (EnDev) programme is an energy access partnership that is currently financed by six donor countries: the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Sweden. EnDev promotes sustainable access to modern energy services for households, social institutions and small to medium-sized enterprises in 24 developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is the lead agency commissioned with coordinating and implementing the Energising Development programme in close corporation with the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).
Energising Development Kenya Programme (EnDev Kenya) was launched in 2006. The programme promotes access to modern energy services, specifically improved cookstoves and small solar systems, for households, social institutions and small businesses particularly in rural areas. The implementation approach entails capacity building of last mile distribution channels for these technologies as well as supporting the private sector to mitigate market development barriers.
The programme is structured into 2 components (namely: stoves and solar) and operates in four focal clusters spread over 24 counties in Lake Victoria, Western, Central, parts of Rift Valley and Lower Eastern. The programme in Kenya is implemented by GIZ in partnership with SNV (Netherlands Development Organisation).
Results
By December 2018, more than 6.7 million people had access to improved cooking facilities and about 740,000 people had access to electric power thanks to small pico-solar systems offering varying services such as lighting, phone charging, TV and Radio. This translates to over 669,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emission reduction annually and saves more than 0.58 million tonnes of firewood, which corresponds to about 35,000 hectares of natural forest. In addition, 1,940 social institutions and 1,151 SMEs are using improved cookstoves. The programme has also created income-generating and employment opportunities for about 4,000 trained stove artisans/dealers and over 1,000 last mile entrepreneurs (LMEs) for solar products.