SAFE Webinar I: Overview of Terminology, Cross-cutting Issues, Challenges and Coordination

Editor's Notes

• #8: Setting the scene: We are currently seeing the highest level of displacement on record. Last year, UNHCR reported that 65.3 million people were forcibly displaced from their homes as a result of persecution, conflict, generalized violence, or human rights violations. 12.4 million of these were just in 2014. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (Norwegian Refugee Commission) estimates that an additional 19.2 million were displaced by natural disasters, including earthquakes, floods, and drought. Most of this population rely on traditional fuels — firewood, charcoal, animal dung, and agricultural waste — for their energy needs, including cooking, heating, lighting, and powering.
• #9: The impacts of relying on biomass for energy needs are serious and build on eachother. Health: The majority of foods provided by humanitarian agencies (i.e. dry goods like rice, beans, etc.) has to be cooked to be eaten, but cookstoves and fuel are often not provided as part of standard aid. Scarcity of may force households to switch to lower quality food, eat fewer meals, undercook food, or trade food rations for fuel. This impacts nutrition, and affects food security. Smoke pollution from indoor fires causes over 4 million deaths globally every year; MEI estimates that 20,000 of these are forcibly displaced people. Fires are also unsafe – they can cause burns and spread quickly throughout a camp if left unattended. Livelihoods The cost of fuel often absorbs large proportions of crisis-affected families’ meagre income, and the time women and children spend collecting firewood negatively affects their ability to work or attend school. On average, refugee women in sub-Saharan Africa spend 5 hours per trip, 2-3 times a week to collect firewood. This limits their ability to go to school or earn income. Firewood and charcoal sales are often the only source of income for refugees and IDPs, but these livelihoods are unsustainable, and in the long term are detrimental to opportunities for both displaced and host communities. Environment An estimated 64,700 acres of forest are burned for fuel each year by forcibly displaced families living in camps (MEI). Harvesting of firewood for cooking fuel contributes to deforestation, soil erosion, and loss of agricultural and grazing environments. All of these increases the risk of natural disasters (cyclical – more displaced people) Protection Displaced women walk for hours to find firewood and carry very heavy loads back to camp leading to risks of dehydration, physical injury, and attack. When they leave the relatively safety of the camp, they face an increased vulnerability to the risk of gender-based violence, such as rape. A 2014 UNHCR survey found over 42% of refugee households in Chad and 41% of households in Uganda had at least one member that experienced physical, verbal or sexual assault during firewood collection over a 6-month time period. Firewood collection (often illegal) exacerbates tensions between the displaced and host communities. On average they walk more than 5 hours to collect firewood to cook their food, during which they risk physical and sexual assault, while exposure to smoke from traditional stoves impacts their respiratory health. Lack of light increases protection risks and prevents children from studying at night and safely navigating communal areas.
• #10: Clusters are groups of humanitarian organizations, both UN and non-UN, in each of the main sectors of humanitarian action, e.g. water, health and logistics. They are designated by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and have clear responsibilities for coordination. Fuel and energy do not currently have a formal place within the UN humanitarian response system, either as a cluster or reference group. The Alliance advocates for safe access to fuel and energy (SAFE) to be incorporated into humanitarian budgets, strategies, and coordination mechanisms.
• #17: The Moving Energy Initiative: What is it? The Problem: What have we found? What we are Doing to Help?
• #18: Phase 1 presented the current state of energy access amongst displaced populations Building on Phase 1 research, Phase 2 implementing initiatives to address bottlenecks and demonstrate new approaches on the ground Build the evidence base and case for change for humanitarian systems to improve the provision and management of energy services to displaced people Focus on sites in Kenya, Burkina Faso and Jordan
• #19: The costs of energy access and provision for displaced populations are unnecessarily high, whether measured in terms of finance, the environment, health or security.
• #20: In Ugandan refugee camps about half of the households surveyed by UNHCR undercook their food more than twice a week in order to save fuel. In Ethiopia’s Dollo Ado refugee camps, 28% of households sold food rations in order to buy cooking fuel. In Chad, some 35% of households skipped meals during the previous week because they didn’t have enough fuel to cook with.
• #24: Build the evidence base and case for change for humanitarian systems to improve the provision and management of energy services to displaced people An integrated set of eight initiatives designed to address the challenges identified in Phase 1 Phase 2 will run from June 2016 to December 2017 Plan to replicate and scale up successful interventions thereafter and encourage a shift in the approach taken in the humanitarian sector
• #25: Response shows that the private sector are interested and willing But there is still a need to prove business models that work and also to understand how to make projects sustainable – local ownership, maintenance, a lot of investment in infrastructure that sops working Private sector still view the market as risky - hence why grant funding is still required. Want to test the effectiveness of partnerships between private sector and humanitarian actors. Project will be announced end of April Use them as demonstrators for other actors to stimulate further replication.
• #26: Conducting further market scoping of energy product and service value chains in each location; In Kenya plan to focus on solar products, Pico solar, multi light system, PAYG small home systems and productive activities that can be stimulated by them such as phone charging business or extended business hours through access to light. In Jordan, context is different, we plan to focus on stimulating the market for energy efficient building materials to try and reduce the burden on energy resources. Retrofit homes with green materials to monitor the impact and promote findings in the market. In Goudoubou exploring how existing market actors in the clean cookstove sector in Burkina to develop a model to sustainably supply refugees of Goudoubou with cleaner cookstoves and fuels, economic opportunities through electrification of market places and agricultural processing.
• #27: The programme will produce a series of reports to disseminate the research and lessons learnt from the program. In addition a series of toolkits will be developed to support agencies, donors and other stakeholders to make better decisions in meeting the energy needs of displaced people. Present findings and research at conferences and events to raise the profile of the issue and share knowledge in the sector. Research aims to help other stakeholders better prioritize, manage and implement energy interventions so that displaced people have better access to energy. From demonstration and market testing conducted in Phase 2 we plan to scale up and replicate activities based on the evidence we will learn.
• #31: “In urban environments, where displaced communities often reside alongside the non-displaced (but in many ways are equally vulnerable) urban poor, and where complex, heavily monetised systems mean health, education, housing and food are deeply embedded in market systems, response efforts can no longer be “sector” or “beneficiary” centric”; Guay (2015, p. 11)