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> Posted by Kelley Mesa
Paul Rippey’s lates Energy Links podcast features a special selection of interviews recorded in the field, in Nyanza Province in Western Kenya, with savings group members who have purchased solar lamps. The lamps have been sold by one of the entrepreneur franchisees working for CARE to train savings groups – Leonida Bironga. Leonida confidently thinks she can sell a thousand lamps a month if she gets the supply, and that is about to happen. The future for village life looks much brighter all of a sudden in Western Kenya!
Listen to the podcast »
> Posted by David Levaï
I’ve just finished a week mission in Tanzania to jump start a new phase in our Energy Links program: begin building a real micro-energy sector in Tanzania by bridging the gap between the numerous energy companies (that have great innovations to offer, but struggle to reach scale) and the thriving microfinance institutions (that have a weekly access to a very large number of households, but lack the time or resources to offer energy solutions to their clients).
Until now we have worked on two ways to provide the most basic of energy needs: lighting through small solar lanterns and cooking through biomass briquettes. These solutions are not only cleaner than the existing alternatives of kerosene (for lighting) and charcoal (for cooking), but they are safer, healthier, more efficient, and, most importantly, much cheaper over the long run.
Our newest alternative solution for cooking is biogas. In Dar-es-Salaam I met with Nachiket Potnis, the director of Appropriate Rural Technology Institute and a genius Indian inventor who’s lived in Tanzania for over 15 years. He is commercializing a very simple compact biogas system Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Elisabeth Rhyne
Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak at an event I never expected to connect with – the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. This professional group, representing over 100,000 engineers of all kinds, is looking at how their profession can make a difference for people at the base of the pyramid around the world. They were surprisingly eager to learn from and maybe even connect with microfinance. The lessons I shared from Energy Links seemed to resonate with many people in the group. Great physical design is what engineers pride themselves on, but great design only has impact if it is embedded in deep market understanding, a sustainable business model, and a scalable supply chain – all of which suggest the possibly obvious point that cross-discipline cooperation is needed to solve problems.
Newly minted engineers are especially eager to make a difference, and they represent tremendous talent resources for development projects. In addition to renewable energy, I talked with people working on access for people with disabilities, on water, and on low-cost health care. The excitement of these folks was contagious. You can follow them on Twitter. The event is the Engineering for the Developing World Summit, and you can follow Twitter tweets through the topic #EDWS.
> Posted by David Levaï
Unpacking Solar Kits in Mali
We are pleased to announce that today, on March 15th, the Center’s Energy Links Project received its first batch of 400 Solar Kits delivered to Bamako, Mali, and that distribution operations are beginning as we speak. This milestone comes at the heels of a year of efforts in identifying the right partners to establish a commercial venture and play the roles of importer and distributors. Energy Links has recently entered an agreement with HORONYA, a leading importer of solar material in Mali. The fifteen year-old company that had the desire to make solar solutions available to poor Malian households and it will be supported in this endeavor by a range of MFIs and NGOs with a network of savings groups as its retail channel, in particular to reach remote rural areas and off-grid households. Read the rest of this entry »
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
Check out the latest Energy Links podcast in which Roey Rosenblith, co-founder of Village Energy in Uganda, talks with host Paul Rippey about his start-up solar lighting company, which seeks to add maximum local value by assembling products in country.
Roey also shares about his recent experiences as a passenger on NorthWest Flight 253 on Christmas day, which barely escaped being blown up, and reads part of his blog post on that experience, which appeared on the Huffington Post.
Listen to Roey’s podcast here >
> Posted by Kelley Mesa
Let your New Year’s resolution for 2010 be to subscribe to the Center’s podcast series!
The Center has a growing library of podcasts on topics ranging from microfinance and energy to client protection and housing innovations. The latest include some exciting, and quite musical, pieces by Paul Rippey…
- Asif Dowla, Climate Change and Microfinance
Asif Dowla talks with host Paul Rippey about the new paper, sponsored by Grameen Foundation and Oxfam USA, on Climate Change and Microfinance. Professor Dowla discusses how MFIs can “climate proof” their financial products, and of the importance of remittances and savings in a changing climate. - Jacob Moss and the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air
In this 13th episode, Paul Rippey interviews Jacob Moss of the EPA, who has led the effort to create the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. Jacob and Paul talk about stoves, including some breakthrough models that might change everything!
Learn and listen more here >
And stay tuned for a new Energy Links podcast coming your way very soon…
> Posted by David Levai
Asif Dowla, a microfinance expert and professor of economics at St Mary’s college of Maryland, has a great idea: engage the microfinance industry to adapt to climate change. He posted a call to action on CGAP’s blog yesterday after releasing a report that he wrote for Grameen Foundation and Oxfam America and interviewing with Paul Rippey, another microfinance and climate change specialist. His piece is a reminder to us all—during the last days of the Copenhagen Summit—that microfinance has not been paying close enough attention to the threat of climate change, despite the fact that it will affect the world’s poor first—the very ones whom MF aims to help.
In recent years, the microfinance industry, maybe more than the rest of the development community, has failed to provide scalable and replicable solutions to address the rising climate threats. No surprise here, as in the last decade, microfinance institutions have proven reluctant to disrupt a highly successful credit-based business model growing at exponential rates.
Asif Dowla calls for a “climate proofing” of microfinance products and institutions in order to adapt to the new environmental conditions that have already started to impact the poor (recurrent droughts, rising water levels, diseases and pests expansion). He recommends institutionalizing a change of model allowing flexibility of repayment schedules and installments for clients struck by natural disasters. His argument: MFIs need to incorporate these climate-related threats in their strategic plan for fear of being hurt.
> Posted by Amanda Powell
Paul Rippey gives us another podcast in his interview with Asif Dowla, the author of a new paper on climate change and microfinance, sponsored by Grameen Foundation and Oxfam USA. Professor Dowla discusses how MFIs can “climate proof” their financial products and of the importance of remittances and savings in a changing climate.
To listen to the podcast, click here >
To download the paper, click here >
> Posted by Amanda Powell
In his 13th episode, Paul Rippey interviews Jacob Moss of the EPA. Jacob led the effort to create the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air. He and Paul talk about stoves, including some breakthrough models that might change everything!
Listen to the podcast here >
Check out the Partnership for Clean Indoor Air and watch a video on clean cooking at www.pciaonline.org >
>Posted by Amanda Powell
In our latest Energy Links podcast Paul Rippey interviews Nick Sowden of ToughStuff. Nick shares ToughStuff‘s success selling solar lamps in Madagascar and other countries using existing distributors, and a business in a box model. Listen here »
About Energy Links
The Energy Links Project is designed to develop, test, refine, document, and publicize integrated approaches to financing and marketing clean energy products to large numbers of people in developing countries. If you want to hear all of the podcasts in the Energy Links series you can listen here.
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