Page 7 - Lighting a Billion Lives - Developing Pathways for Energy Access
P. 7
LIGHTING A BILLION LIVES: DEVELOPING PATHWAYS FOR ENERGY ACCESS
Foreword
In 2016, Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) enters its ninth year of operation
and while the campaign remains committed to its goal of reaching
lives through innovative, sustainable, and responsive energy solutions,
it is also now poised to look back and evaluate the growth and learning
that has emerged over the past decade.
Possibly the only single campaign to operate at this scale in the world,
LaBL has touched over 4.3 million people, across 23 states in India
and in 13 countries in Africa and South Asia. The key drivers towards
the campaign’s wider reach lie in the replication of proven business
processes and localized models, the development of responsive
technological innovations, and the pooling of knowledge and
experience, to enable an environment of collective action.
However, it may be time to now re-think the path forward, and to
devise newer approaches that enable the campaign to increase on-
ground implementation but also, at the same time, intensify its role in
addressing the most primary development goals of ending poverty
and hunger, and promoting better health, education, and quality of life.
Partnerships will play a big role here, and as a step towards bringing
together global stakeholders to jointly develop pathways for scaling
up universal energy access, LaBL is organizing its first conference in
the month of April 2016. The role of energy access in the new era of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for climate mitigation
is ever more critical, especially in terms of the co-benefits it offers
in the areas of education, health, livelihood, productivity, and better
quality of life.
The year 2016 will be an important year for LaBL, and as a global
campaign that thrives on partnerships and collaborations, we look
forward to strengthening our existing relationships and forging new
associations to scale up access to clean, affordable, and sustainable
energy.
Dr Ajay Mathur
Director General,
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Foreword
In 2016, Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) enters its ninth year of operation
and while the campaign remains committed to its goal of reaching
lives through innovative, sustainable, and responsive energy solutions,
it is also now poised to look back and evaluate the growth and learning
that has emerged over the past decade.
Possibly the only single campaign to operate at this scale in the world,
LaBL has touched over 4.3 million people, across 23 states in India
and in 13 countries in Africa and South Asia. The key drivers towards
the campaign’s wider reach lie in the replication of proven business
processes and localized models, the development of responsive
technological innovations, and the pooling of knowledge and
experience, to enable an environment of collective action.
However, it may be time to now re-think the path forward, and to
devise newer approaches that enable the campaign to increase on-
ground implementation but also, at the same time, intensify its role in
addressing the most primary development goals of ending poverty
and hunger, and promoting better health, education, and quality of life.
Partnerships will play a big role here, and as a step towards bringing
together global stakeholders to jointly develop pathways for scaling
up universal energy access, LaBL is organizing its first conference in
the month of April 2016. The role of energy access in the new era of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and for climate mitigation
is ever more critical, especially in terms of the co-benefits it offers
in the areas of education, health, livelihood, productivity, and better
quality of life.
The year 2016 will be an important year for LaBL, and as a global
campaign that thrives on partnerships and collaborations, we look
forward to strengthening our existing relationships and forging new
associations to scale up access to clean, affordable, and sustainable
energy.
Dr Ajay Mathur
Director General,
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
