Projects

The project supports Productive Use of Electricity (PUE) in four Community Rural Electrification Entities (CREEs) which are community-based micro utilities that are responsible for distribution of electricity and customer services. The goal is to improve local economic conditions and to enhance the financial viability of the CREEs.

The project builds upon a close cooperation with HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation Nepal which trains local Enterprise Service Providers (ESPs) over nine months using a learning-by-doing approach. The ESPs support entrepreneurship development and provide business development services to their customers against a service charge, simultaneously to the activities implemented by EnDev.

EnDev supports the CREEs in a logical promotion sequence:

• Awareness creation for productive use promotion at the CREEs’ and stakeholders level
• The development of the CREE business plan and action plan for PUE promotion
• The assessment of available capacities, networks and partnerships to support local entrepreneurship
• The extension of an “incentive package” for existing and potential local businesses which includes  e.g. promotional tariffs, technical advice or services by the ESPs

Trainings, coaching and exposure visits are extended to CREEs to develop their willingness to promote productive uses. The business development plan of the CREE is an important tool to decide how much they should engage in PUE promotion. A training manual is also being developed that builds upon the experiences from the four supported CREEs. In future it can be used for the community based promotion of productive uses to apply the developed approach in other areas as well.

An important feature is the promotion of business activities but it also includes the promotion of “electricity literacy” which enables users to be more efficient in their electricity use and thus generally more productive in their livelihood activities.

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) / Energising Development (EnDev)

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation

National Association of Community Electricity Users Nepal (NACEUN)

Energising Development

HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation

http://endev.info/content/Nepal

Bart Jan van Beuzekom (bart.vanbeuzekom@giz.de)

Pooja Sharma (pooja.sharma@giz.de)