Executive Summary
Executive Summary In September 2010 at the United Nations High-level Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the international community reaffirmed its commitment to accelerating progress and achieving the MDGs by the target date, adopting an action-oriented outcome document. The outcome document represents a collective assessment of the situation as well as a roadmap of actions needed to achieve the MDGs, including in sub-Saharan African countries where progress has been mixed. One of the key pathways to the achievement of the MDGs in sub-Saharan countries is seen to be sustained, inclusive and equitable growth – particularly where it creates and enhances enterprises and employment in sectors that benefit the poor, raises revenue for the provision of essential social services and infrastructure and involves more equitable distribution of income, assets and resources. Evidence suggests that, while there are some challenges to sustained, inclusive and equitable growth in sub-Saharan Africa, one of the most pervasive constraints is the lack of adequate, reliable and equitable access to modern energy services. Although energy access is not an MDG itself, it has been increasingly recognized as a crucial pillar in the achievement of all of the MDGs, most recently in a report by the UN Secretary-General´s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change (AGECC, 2010). The United Nations General Assembly has since voted 2012 to be the ‘International Year of Sustainable Energy for All’. Sustainable energy access will be a central theme at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in 2012, at which the UN Secretary-General is expected to launch a new goal of Universal Energy Access by 2030, with secondary goals of doubling renewable energy and energy efficiency. Access to basic energy services such as cooking and heating is essential for survival, while lighting, cooling and information and communication technology (ICTs) underpin health, education and services. Energy access is also a crucial input to a wide range of productive and income-generating activities. Few enterprises of any scale can operate without a supply of electricity, fuel and/or mechanical power with which to produce the energy services needed in appliances and processing equipment, from boilers to computers. At national scale, access to modern energy services is critically coupled to a country’s economic development, yet over 1.3 billion people globally are without access to electricity and 2.7 billion people are without clean cooking facilities (IEA, 2011). Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest rates of electrification and access to modern fuels in the world, at 26 percent and 21 percent, respectively (UNDP/WHO, 2009), while no data is available on mechanical power. In surveys of African business leaders, availability, reliability and affordability of energy consistently come out among the most important constraints on expansion of enterprise activities (CGDEV, 2009). These activities drive the employment growth that the Africa Commission 2009 report ‘Realizing the Potential of Africa’s Youth’ shows is so strongly linked to achievement of the MDGs. However, the nature of the interdependent relationship between energy access and employment has not yet been well understood. This study seeks to start to address this gap. With increasing awareness of the issues of climate change and high oil prices, a confluence of political, social and economic drivers has stimulated the development of energy technology approaches that diverge from the grid-based, fossil-fuelled models dominant to date. New off-grid, decentralized energy options are increasingly available, often using renewable energy resources including solar, wind, small hydro and biofuels. The emergence of such technologies has also been linked internationally with the creation of new ‘green jobs’, along with grid-based renewables, energy efficiency and other environmental technologies. Decentralized
Integrating Energy Access and Employment Creation to Accelerate Progress on the MDGs in Sub-Saharan Africa 1