Thousands of refugees, host communities in Rwanda making use of green energy access

By Inspirer reporter.

Thousands of refugees are set to work with Practical Action as it expands its energy work in camps and host communities in Rwanda over the next four years.

After helping to bring energy access to 83,000 people into Nyabiheke, Kigeme and Gihembe refugee camps, the work will now continue and expand into three more – Mahama, Mugombwa and Kiziba.

The project is set to reach more than 100,000 refugees and host community, demonstrating the power of electricity in enabling people to take their lives off hold and turn camps into safer places to live with thriving economies.

“This is a unique piece of work, with the power to change the lives of millions of refugees around the world for the better. The first phase has proved to people that our approach can work, now we are going to showcase it at a bigger scale to prove it can be rolled out for refugees throughout the world.

Refugee camps shouldn’t be places where innocent people, forced to move through no fault of their own, cannot have ambitions, and must live in the dark.  Instead, we will show that with the support of the host community, access to renewable energy, financial support, capacity building and awareness creation, it is possible for people to feel safe at night and reach their potential,”Denyse Umubyeyi, Practical Action Country Director for Rwanda

 Renewable Energy for Refugees (RE4R II) will showcase how access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy can transform refugee camps and their surrounding communities into places where people can continue to be economically and socially active.

“Access to energy is not only life-changing, especially for women, it is also a prerequisite for people and business to grow. I salute the efforts of the Government of Rwanda to provide electricity to 100% of the population by 2024, and am pleased that Sweden can contribute to this ambition, as here, in refugee camps and host communities,” said Swedish Ambassador Johanna Teague

The project will be managed by Practical Action with funding provided by Sida-Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency working in close collaboration with Rwanda’s Ministry of Emergency Management, UNHCR, the camp-and host community representatives and local authorities.

During the first months of 2023 Practical Action Rwanda will publish tenders for business cooperation within RE4R II for solar home systems, clean cooking and fuels.

“Renewable Energy for Refugees project will support the Government to achieve our commitments to the Global Refugee Compact specifically the pledge on Energy and Infrastructure and contributing to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 which aims at ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all,” added Minister in charge of Emergency Management, Marie Solange Kayisire.

By end of the project,  the refugee communities in all camps in Rwanda and the surrounding host communities will have access to affordable, low-carbon and environmentally friendly energy for household, business and community uses.

Refugees in all camps and the surrounding host communities have to benefit from improved quality of life and livelihoods through strengthened markets, increased economic activity and a focus on the transformative changes that improved access to energy offers.

Humanitarian stakeholders in Rwanda and in the wider, global humanitarian sector must prioritise renewable energy solutions, endorse, adopt and replicate Practical Action’s approach, and include refugee energy and livelihoods needs in their plans and policies at local, national and international levels.

113,000 refugees to benefit

The project is anticipated to reach more than 113 000 refugees and 34,000 host community households.

With this, 70% of households in five refugee camps and their host communities will have access to renewable energy products and services.

At least 300 enterprises will have access to suitable energy products and services to meet their business requirements, 80% of the total area of refugee camps will be covered by public lighting, and  70% of households will have access to clean fuels and technology.

Over the last five years, the project, enabled green energy access for more than 83,000 refugees in Rwanda who can now enjoy improved health, run their businesses, study, and socialise at night after investment in better access to clean energy.

 Private sector suppliers sold nearly 7,000 cookstoves and 1,254,887kg of biomass pellets. This enabled beneficiaries to save time on cooking, save money on fuel and protect them from health concerns.

The project reduced the money spent on fuel for cooking by 23% and deforestation by reducing cooking with wood and charcoal by more than 50%, time spent gathering fuel for cooking each week by 1.4 hours, allowing refugees to spend more time with their families or earn income and Installed 4,279 solar home systems, enabling children to study and small businesses to run at night.

It alsoInstalled 185 solar-powered streetlights. 91% of people interviewed said they felt safer using the camp at night, Increased business income by 50% , Trained 150 refugees in the maintenance of solar technology  and Created more than 1000 jobs.

Chantal Bibonimana, a canteen and retail shop owner and Congolese refugee who saw the benefits of Renewable energy in one closed camp before moving to Mahama said: “Before the project we had security issues. We wouldn’t move at night; we were struggling to take sick people to the hospital, because of the darkness.  Our first issue was resolved when we got community streetlights. Our children also had problems in education. They weren’t doing well. When they were back from school, they couldn’t review their school notes, because it was dark. The solar home systems changed that.”

Domitile Ningonsala, Chantal’s neighbour of the past five months and a Burundian refugee who hasn’t reaped the rewards of having electricity in her home, said:“In 2020, when we arrived at the camp, we discovered that some of the neighbours had solar-powered homes while we had not. As a result, we leave our homes when it becomes dark to talk to our neighbours where there is light.

I would be overjoyed to install a solar system in my home like my neighbours have so I don’t have to walk outside looking for electricity to charge my phones without disturbing them.”

“The change that energy can bring is immense. Having light would be so helpful. We wouldn’t have a limit on what we are working on. We would be able to work at our homes. We would be able to eat at night, with no need to use candles or phone torches that fade when one leaves the room leaving others in the dark. It is so hard to depend on only one light placed in one room,” she added.