Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
What lessons can we learn about universal Access to energy in the Dos Aguas community of Panama?
Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
EXPLORATORY
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is the gap on energy access in remote-rural communities of Panama
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
There are more than 770 million people in the world who do not have access to energy. Achieving the global goal of closing the energy gap by 2030 (Sustainable Development Goal 7 - SDG 7) requires enormous efforts and creativity to leave no one behind. The UNDP strategic plan 2022 - 2025 has the "moon-shot" to close the energy gap for more than 500 million people around the world, however, the challenge goes much further.
Despite the high level of electrification in the Latin American region, it is not less important. We are still talking about more than 10 million people without access - 85% of them living in rural areas. It is key that the most vulnerable are put at the center of the energy access agenda. However, the challenge goes far beyond just energy.
We know that the crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, added to climate change and the disruption of global supply chains due to armed conflicts have intensified the conditions of poverty and inequality. The pace of change we are experiencing is unprecedented and to close this gap we need to learn to unlearn... and learn again from the hands of those who are closest to the problems.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
In Panama, a country of 4.5 million people, the energy access gap is estimated at more than 93,000 families and the Rural Electrification Office and the National Energy Secretariat seek to close this gap before 2030. At first glance, this number does not seem significant, however, a large part of this population is located in the poorest and most vulnerable territories of the country and face structural development challenges beyond energy. We are talking about the last stretch of the last mile.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Based on a series of community workshops, the community of Dos Aguas reflected and learned together on what energy access represent to them. Here are a few insights:
1. Access to energy does not happen in a vacuum, each community has a history, knowledge, and practices that we need to recognize, value and integrate. In Dos Aguas, its rivers, forests and lands are a core part of its identity and livelihoods.
2. Recognizing and incorporating local leadership is as powerful as the best technology, since the previous experiences, strengths, and weaknesses of these groups are a key guide to building energy management models in communities. For community leaders “dialogue, participation and collective decisions”, as well as “honesty and transparency about resources” have been important to maintain trust and unity to advance as a community. In other words, without relationships of trust there is no sustainability.
3. Isolated solar panels for homes are perhaps the best-known system in remote areas, we explore some cases of these systems installed in Capira (Santa Rosa and Trinidad), Panama East (Tortí) and Kankintú (Comarca Ngäbe Buglé). Most of these cases highlighted that the main reason for failure has been the lack of a community energy management model, little training and/or easy access to spare parts and technologies that are inefficient or not appropriate to the context.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
Our value proposition was the generation of more ethnographic insights for this process, as well as the articulation of these learnings with the broader "Discover and Deploy" campaign.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
Communities like Dos Aguas have a lot to teach the world about Universal Energy Access. What does it mean - and what it doesn't? Learn more about the ethnographic insights collectively generated with the support of our Accelerator Lab.
Partners
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Panama Canal Authority
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Supported with the organization of workshops and articulation of local institutions and community boards that they work with.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Office of Rural Electrification
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Supported with technical support on the different types of technologies used for different territorial contexts for energy access in remote-rural communities.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
National secretariat of energy
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Helped with technical guidance on different technologies for universal energy access
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What can Dos Aguas teach us about SDG 7 and sustainable energy access?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
The ethnographic levels were helpful in showcasing key learnings and elements that are key to avoid causing harm in communities and strengthen the sustainability of these type of interventions.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
The project had a lot of technical expertise on energy technologies, however, there was a gap in understanding contextual/territorial dynamics in rural-remote communities.
Closing
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
Ideally, these insights could support broader energy access efforts, as well as the articulation of these learnings with the Universal Energy Access campaign "Discover and Deploy".
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7Affordable and clean energy
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