Sustainable Energy in Refugee Camps - Dr Sarah Rosenberg-Jansen

So if you've joined us, um, it's like you already have an interest in the energy sector or the humanitarian sector, um, which is ideal 'cause that's what we're gonna spend the next 45 minutes talking about. Um, a quick note for anybody who isn't familiar with energy technology, so isn't coming, um, with a, with a knowledge of that, I quite often say that if it switches on or off or gets rapidly hot or cold, it's energy. The Gresham College lecture that you're listening to right now is giving you knowledge and insight from one of the world's leading academic experts, making it takes a lot of time. But because we want to encourage a love of learning, we think it's well worth it. We never make you pay for lectures, although donations are needed. All we ask in return is this. Send a link to this lecture to someone you think would benefit. And if you haven't already, click the follow or subscribe button from wherever you are listening right now. Now, let's get back to the lecture. It's your light bulbs. It's your computer, it's your wifi, it's your cooker, it's your oven, it's electricity, and it's cooking. And we shouldn't forget the cooking part. Many practitioners do. Um, there are really three sections of today's talk, um, highlighted here. Uh, the first is insights into the lives of refugees. I'll show a lot of pictures about that. Um, secondly, we're gonna reflect on how refugee communities actually access energy, how the energy gets there, and thirdly, considerations of governance and some of the politics of these topics. Um, I'm also really gonna show a lot of photos. I hope that you guys like that, uh, and images from my time living and working in Rwanda and Kenya specifically, and some other places. Um, and one thing to note is that so much of what I'll say is not just about energy technologies, but is also about the politics and governance, um, issues embedded within access to energy. Um, so what ref, what access do refugees have to energy? What types of energy technologies, products and services do they currently use? Um, we are gonna talk about camps mostly today, hence refugee camps is in the title of the talk. Um, camps are really a mixture of formal and informal dwellings. As this picture of Kakuma camp, uh, in Kenya shows. Some people live in tents, perhaps in small homes with corrugated iron, um, sheets for roofs, some with mud brick homes. Um, the traditional image. And if you came to to see, uh, Han's lecture on the visual politics of, of refugee hood, the image of refugee lives as people living in tensors being emergency displaced doesn't actually necessarily reflect the vast majority of refugee situations all over the world. Um, and today I'm going to focus on the vast majority of refugee, how refugees live in camps in Sub-Saharan Africa. Um, in other situations, for example, in Jordan or refugee families who have moved, for example, to the global north people living in Germany, um, or the uk, their energy situations are quite different. Um, so just to introduce, this is a picture of cima, uh, a little bit. CIMA is huge. It's 200 and over 220,000 people. It's a mini city, and it's actually a constellation of camps, not just one camp. Um, those people are coming from Sudan, from South Sudan, from Somalia, from Uganda even, which is known as a safe country. But, um, there are refugees still coming from there. Um, and from from DRC, the Democratic Republic of Congo. Um, and it's really a huge, a huge space. There are pictures of the Randan camps that I'll show that's quite a different situation. Those camps are smaller. They're something like 10, 15,000 people, and they're perched on the tops of hills. For those of you who've been to Rwanda, you'll know the country of a thousand hills. Um, but still the same types of energy environments. Um, the first thing really of, of note to say is that millions of people worldwide, millions of people are forcibly displaced. I think it's 108 million people are now forcibly displaced in the world. And the vast majority of those lack access to reliable and sustainable energy. Um, and in fact, as these figures show, 94% of forcibly display people in camps lack meaningful access to power, um, and meaningful. This is meaningful. There are lights, there are wifi, there is heating. Um, so 94% lack that access and 81% lack, uh, access to anything other, um, than very basic fuels for cooking. So that's firewood, it's charcoal, it's burning rubbish over open, um, over open, uh, stoves. And you'll see that. Um, and so when we use the phrase no access, and I'll use it quite often in this talk, when we say no access, it's a phrase we commonly use in a practitioner space, but it actually means no access to sustainable, affordable, or reliable energy. Because to have no energy access is almost impossible. People will have a burning, they'll use a burning, uh, piece of wood for light. They'll use candles. They'll use kerosene. Um, they'll go and collect firewood and cook over that. To, to live without any form of energy access is almost impossible. You would have to be vegan and growing your own food <laugh>, um, and not using any form of electricity or wifi. Um, so what does this actually look like in practice, this lack of access? Um, this is a picture of a refugee home in K camp in Kenya. Um, this is a picture of a, just a traditional example of homes and how people are cooking in those homes. Um, many refugees use three stone fires. Um, it's, this is maybe a practitioner term. Now I'm talking to a public audience. I realize you might not know what that is. It's literally what it sounds like. Three stones, 1, 2, 3 with something burning in the middle. And then you put a pot on top of the stones. You can see a picture of that there and some charcoal stoves as well. Um, most people in refugee camps use firewood or charcoal to cook. Um, and having as this arrangement, uh, shows lots of small cook stoves, so not just one oven or a cooker, but three or four things that are doing different, um, that are providing different forms of energy. Some are, um, going very quickly, are burning very quickly, and they are heating water. Some are going very slowly. They're keeping fo food warm. Um, and this is known as fuel stacking, um, or cook stove stacking, um, in the sector and is very, very common. Um, in terms of lighting, lighting for homes. Uh, and again, this is a refugee home in, in Kenya. Um, it's actually phenomenally difficult to take photos of, uh, electricity technologies in refugee camps, uh, indeed anywhere. Um, so this is the closeup of what's on the roof there. And these are little solar panels, and they are powering a couple of light bulbs and maybe a mobile phone charger inside. Um, these technologies only really offer ba basic lighting services, a couple of light bulbs at most, um, and electricity access in general. Um, for example, the ability to power a computer or to charge a mobile phone is unco is really uncommon within homes. Instead, many refugees often use electricity outside of their homes. This is a picture of a shop in Naba Camp in Rwanda. Um, it's a milk bar cafe, uh, sort of like a mini restaurant. Um, and they sell cold drinks. And you can see the fridge of there in the background. You can see a freezer for ice and things. Um, and people will go out and instead of having a fridge or a freezer in their home, um, they will buy a cold, a cold drink because they can't afford the power to have, or the appliance to have a fridge in their home. Um, this picture, it looks like a mess, but that's the reality.<laugh>, um, is of a phone charging shop in CIMA camp, um, where people charge to pay phones. So instead of being able to plug your phone into its charger at home, you go out to a shop, you pay them 10 p and they keep your phone there for the day and they charge it. And that's how some of these economies within refugee camps grow. Um, these businesses, we should know also use energy themselves, of course, um, to power fridges. Um, if it's a barber salon, they use electricity quite often to, to power hair clippers. Um, if it's a restaurant, they have to have energy to cook meals. Um, and so the shops themselves also are a consumer of energy, a user of energy. Um, and we shouldn't forget that because it's quite important in this space. In despite these types of energy, most refugee homes are without what we consider modern power connection to a national grid. As this picture here sort of highlights, this is the top of Kme camp in Rwanda, and these little houses down here are the camp. And as you can see, that's the national grid running along the top. Um, even when the grid is literally over the top, the camps and the households within the camps aren't connected. And this camp wasn't connected to the households, it was connected to the U-N-H-D-R offices. Um, I would note that when I took this picture, in fact, the reason I took this picture was I was being shown around by a humanitarian agency energy specialist. And I'm doing this for a reason, <laugh>. And, uh, he was telling me all about the energy in the camps, and he was saying, oh, we can't have good power here. We can't have modern power here. Um, but it's just too far away. It's too difficult. And I said, well, I mean, the grid runs across the top of us. And he said, no, it doesn't. And I pointed up literally standing under that, and I said, that's it there. Um, and he said, oh, then why isn't it connected to the houses? And I said, now that is the question. Um, and so this is a bit of a story of an example. Um, as you'll have seen, there are many, many types of energy technologies fuels in this picture. But what we would understand as, as modern access, as access equivalent to here, is largely absent. There is one space that it is not absent, and that is the institutions, that is the U-N-H-C-R offices, the IOM offices, the NGO offices. Um, these are pictures. Um, this is a picture of, uh, U-N-H-C-R office, WPFP office with electrical appliances in Akima and Kenya. Um, and this picture over here is a picture of a food distribution center. And as you can see, there's lots of electricity going on in those spaces. So the idea that there's no electricity in refugee camps is disproved very much by a picture. Um, and you could find this similar type of place in any camp, um, that you go to. Um, the institutions have usually a really large amount of power they can power as these pictures show their water coolers, their air conditioners, their televisions, um, their wifi connections. Um, and actually some of those spaces are actually quite advanced technologically. Um, for example, you can't really see it here, but the thing that sort of looks like a mobile phone is actually a fingerprint and retina scanner for the biometrics that they take to allow people to access food. Um, and so those are sort of advanced electrical technologies. Um, many of the sources, however, energy sources powering these, um, these technologies, uh, are unfortunately still fossil fuels, um, and come from, in this case, diesel generators within the camps. Um, the good news is, and I'll spend a little bit of time now talking about sustainable access. The good news is that increasingly more is being done to switch to renewable and sustainable sources. Um, progress is slow as you're about to see, but it is happening in some spaces. Um, the most common form of sustainable access is through solar power, um, technologies, for example, solar panels here within Kama Camp, um, in Kenya that are sitting in a warehouse about to be put up. Um, I should note for those of you that will ask me inevitable questions afterwards, why is it only solar? Um, this isn't about the industry picking winners or saying that solar is the best thing ever. It's that there's a market for solar it, east Africa, west Africa, South Africa, um, and that the realities of that situation is that solar is cheap and easy to access. It's very decentralized. You can just pick up a few solar panels and plug them in. You don't have to build a big set of wind and turbines, um, or create a whole biogas plant, for example. So the majority of renewable solutions and sustainable solutions are solar or solar based. I'm sure there'll be some questions about that afterwards. Um, in terms of, um, other types of solar that you might see, um, you sometimes see these little boxes here. You can see a solar lantern there, D delight. And, uh, sunlight are common within the camps. Um, and what happens there is U-N-H-C-R or another agency will go out and they will distribute solar lanterns to the refugee homes, um, that often happens on arrival. And you'll see these types of technologies in boxes ready to be distributed or in, in homes around the place. Um, and then you'll see them sometimes being used, sometimes as you can see from this picture being discarded or charged, depending on your opinion. Um, on the, on the roof <laugh>, I thought it was being charged. I checked with the homeowner and he said, no, no, my kids threw it up there and I haven't used it in six weeks. So yeah, sometimes the technologies that are being distributed aren't always being used, um, as well as lanin. You'll also see clean cooking projects, um, run by NGOs in the private sector companies. Um, these pictures are a couple of examples, um, of those types of projects. Um, and that quite often clean cooking projects are, they're just providing standalone solutions. They'll just provide one cooker. This is an enviro fit cooker, um, which you can use to cook your food. And this one over here is, uh, a mini moto stove. And you can put sort of wood and charcoal in the bottom of that red one, and it'll cook your food in a, as a gasify technology. Um, what the images here really don't show is the huge variety of energy technologies that are needed, especially cooking technologies. And just as many people in this audience, um, will have a kettle, an oven, a microwave, a grill, a hob, and many other cooking appliances in your home. You know, if you've got a bread maker or a rice cooker or a slow cooker or a waffle maker, think of all the different types of cooking technologies you could have and maybe do have in your home. Um, you know, that's not gonna make waffles, um, <laugh>. It's not gonna make bread. It's not, it's not an oven. It's a little cook stove that you can cook as you would on an open hob. Um, and so that cooking is a really inherently important part of refugee life of all our lives. And unfortunately, most humanitarian clean cooking projects don't really scratch the surface. They just provide a few individual technologies like the ones you see here. Um, that's for clean cooking in, in homes, in terms of, um, public public lighting and public space lighting. Uh, this is a picture of a, um, of a solar streetlight, uh, in Mahama in Rwanda, um, in some locations, um, public street lighting powered by solar has been installed. It's increasingly one of the more popular, uh, things to do in refugee camps because it's relatively easy. Um, there are a lot of suppliers. It doesn't cost that much. You can buy these things, um, not quite off Amazon, but actually you probably could buy them off Amazon <laugh>. Um, but I'm hoping that's not how UNHR does it most of the time. Um, uh, but even though you will see quite a few examples of this, such solutions are not systematically rolled out across refugee camps. Um, it's more, you know, somebody was like, oh, it's dark here. Let's put up a streetlight. Maybe it should be solar. Um, you also see some solar for operations, and this is the good news part of today, um, that some UN operations and food distribution centers also have their, so their own solar energy solutions. And that can range from just being a little mini panel like this one that's plugged into some light bulbs and maybe a bit of electricity in that food warehouse, or they can be bigger installations. As you see my colleague here, uh, in Jordan, standing in front of, um, a large solar, well medium solar array, uh, that's powering a school. Um, those can range from, from small and, and medium sized solutions, but aren't yet large scale in the majority of places. One place where you really do see a lot of solar solutions is in the refugee markets. Um, these are the informal markets that are found, um, within camps, within all camps, um, and they're created by refugees and host community members themselves. Um, for example, here you'll see the solar panels, um, and the red solar lanterns, for those of you who aren't familiar, these are d light lanterns. They have a little solar panel on top, and they provide a lantern. You can walk round with it, et cetera. Um, that technology is exactly the same technology as you will have if you have garden, solar garden lighting that you can buy from the B and q or anywhere else. Um, so this is not about technological innovation. Um, it's about selling innovation and process innovation. Um, one thing that I found quite interesting within some of these shops is you'll see <laugh>, the huge array of stuff they sell, like solar Lances being next to locks, being next to beautiful fabric you can buy and all sorts of things. I'll show a few more pictures like this in a minute. Um, and that solar is seen as, and energy is seen as part of part of life. It's not some specialist shop that you go to buy it. It's just mixed in there amongst all the other things. Um, in terms of bigger picture space for hope, really, um, increasingly big solar mini grids, like the one you see here, um, are being talked about, not necessarily installed, but are being talked about by humanitarian operations to power their organizations and connect homes. Um, and this is one of the large scale installations in Zachary camp in Jordan, um, that powers u n's own systems. And it also connects those households. I should say that while all the pictures in this presentation are mine, the only one I didn't actually have a decent picture of, um, was this. So I've borrowed that from U N's, public materials, um, reference available. Um, that one thing that's quite difficult about this is, is not just the finding the space, but the political willpower to do such a thing for every refugee camp in the world. And so examples like this are the exception, very much the exception. I think that's probably four or five examples like this in the whole world out of hundreds of refugee camps. Um, and they're the, the, uh, they are the exception, not the rule. Um, I want to talk for a few minutes about how energy is accessed and come on to a little bit about the politics here. Um, many people would assume that the, the UN in its magnificence is providing and supplying energy access in refugee camps. Um, however, the actual supply of energy and how energy is getting to these places is far more complicated than that. Um, and to talk about some of that complexity, I'm gonna revisit some of the pictures that I just shared and talk about how the energy got there. Um, so this is picture tour of Cook Stoves just a few minutes ago. Hope you remember it, um, of a refugee camp in Kenya, um, in this case. Um, that home was buying charcoal like this from a refugee market. It was buying the energy there, and it's buying cook stoves like that also from the local market. And as well as buying the fuel and the technology, which is the cook stoves. Um, people also need to buy lots of other stuff around cooking and electricity. They're buying matches, they're buying cooking pans, they're buying lighter, sometimes pots, of course. Um, and they're buying often food to supplement, uh, the food that is given out to them. In many cases, the UN will distribute firewood sticks, and this is a picture of all that's firewood sticks in Rwanda. Um, and the UN will distribute that for free, first of all. And then refugee families will use that first because it's free. Um, but it runs out. And in some cases, it runs out after a day or two days. Some days it runs out after a week when it's scheduled to last a month. Um, and once that firewood supply runs out, then they have to buy other sources of energy. Um, and in the majority, vast majority of cases, humanitarian provision of cooking energy can be characterized as partial. And if you talk to people within the refugee community, that statement possibly does not do it, does it a disservice, really, because partial is non-existent for some families, and that's very difficult because they're given raw food. And if you can't cook your food, then you go hungry. You have to choose who to feed within your family. There's a fantastic report by practical action on renewable energy in refugee camps, um, in Rwanda that talks about how many families suffer from malnutrition, how many have to choose which members of their family to feed because they can't afford the firewood to cook the food that is given to them. So this is a really serious issue. Um, sorry. It gets, it gets bleak when we talk about cooking. Um, don't worry, it's about to get bleak. Um, so <laugh> for, for homes and for lighting, um, these are the pictures we saw earlier of the mini panels and, and some of the individual standalone solutions. Um, in, in many cases, or in some cases, the UN and NGOs have given out these lanterns for free. Um, and they only last a year, a couple of years. And when they break and they do break, or when a family needs more light or more electricity, um, they have to buy products, um, from the market. Um, as you can see here, people can buy whole batteries. They can buy torches, they can buy radios, they can buy light bulbs, they can buy all the sort of additional products that go with energy solutions. Um, and these are, this is a picture of a shop in Kaki camp in Kenya. Um, and those exist, you know, to supply, um, local needs. Um, humanitarian provision of, of home lighting can really be said to be intermittent, not in the sort of switching on and off sense, but in the temporal sense. It happens at the beginning. Quite often when people arrive as a refugee, which for some people was 20, 30 years ago, um, and they're given a solar lantern or they're given a kerosene lantern 30 years ago. Um, and when that stops working or they run out of kerosene, they have to then buy the additional things or buy new things. Um, and that even though some initial lighting is provided, most families are then left in the dark. And there isn't a follow up of solutions, um, beyond lighting. Sorry, I said it gets bleecker. It really does get quite a lot bleecker in the slides to come.<laugh>, I end on some optimism. Um, so, uh, for, for, for homes, for electricity in homes, uh, beyond lighting, families need all sorts of, of electricity products. Um, for example, televisions and radios for those that can afford it. Extension cables, charging devices. Um, and people don't just buy products, they buy electricity services. Um, and so they won't just buy a solar lantern, but they might go to a shop, um, and go and go on the wifi there, go on the computer there to access, um, to access their email, to access. Please enjoy this fe Facebook <laugh>, which one assumes is Facebook, but who knows? Um, and that they're using that as a service. They're not taking that away with them. They're paying 20 P 50 P to use the computer there, um, like you would've done in the public libraries in the old days. Um, and even in very, very small camps, these types of shops and services are there. Um, these are pictures of both from CIMA where there is a very vibrant, um, economy, and there's a lot of stuff happening in cima, but even in small camps, you will find these sort of spaces, um, and that often there, the people who own these businesses are a mix, a mix of people from the host community, so local Rwandans or local Kenyans, um, and refugees themselves working as entrepreneurs. Um, within this system, the humanitarian provision of energy, this really has very little to do with the humanitarian agencies. Um, their, their work here can be characterized as absent. They're not doing this. This is individual refugee entrepreneurs doing this. Um, and that local markets are the main supplies of electricity within refugee camps. Um, and that's one of the big findings of, of my research and of our sector in the last few years. Before that, it was very much assumed that the UN and NGOs were doing that. And we have empirically disproved that. Um, I put this up, it's quite a nice example. It's actually a cinema. I dunno if you guys can tell that. Um, you can paint to watch shows and films there. You can go to this sort of little shack in the desert in the middle of, um, there's actually Caba in Kenya. Um, and you can go there. It's being powered by the solar panel. And refugees pay to watch films and television here. Um, and you can go in for 50 p and watch a film, has a little air conditioning unit and a fan, and it's quite a nice, quiet, calm place to sit. Um, in this case, un provision of this electricity was accidental. Um, the solar panel I interviewed, the, the chap who runs this solar cinema, um, he said, oh, it was an NGO. They, they had this panel out the back and they forgot about it. And I asked them, can I borrow it? Can I see if it works? And they said, we don't think it works. We plugged it in. We don't know. Take it away with you and see what happens. And he took it away with him and he plugged it in, and he got one of his friends to come around, fiddle with the wires at the back, got it working, and now it supplies the electricity in his shop. Um, but that wasn't, um, planned for by the un. That was some guy knowing another guy and then making a cinema out of it. Um, and I found hundreds and hundreds of examples of when refugees were borrowing power, not stealing, but somehow getting a bit of alternative access, um, to power by borrowing it from UN institutions. Um, for example, they would go to sit and be interviewed or, or, or interview one of the, um, uh, UN staff members. And whilst they were there, they would plug their mobile phone into the plug sockets. And sometimes they would invent reasons to go to the UN offices so that they could use the power. Um, and this sort of informal arrangements were, were very, very common. Um, these, I call these are pictures of death. Um, <laugh>, uh, these are pictures of electricity entrepreneurs or their spaces in the, in the camp. Um, very often you'll find privately owned generators. These, should you not be aware, these are diesel generators. They might look like no diesel generator you've ever seen before in your life. This one is without its casing was actually on when I was in that space. And for those that are aware, most of them have a casing that's like this with a little fan in it that keeps the generator cold. But this one didn't have a casing for whatever reason. And so he had rigged up the pitchers, just do not do this, just this. I have a video. The big pipe at the top there is dropping water out over the generator to cool the space around it. Um, and I think most of you would know that electricity and water, not natural mates, you really shouldn't be having them next to each other in that way, especially next to this lovely little battery full of acid. Um, and I walked into that space. I was with an electrical engineering colleague of mine, and she turned to me and she whispered, we might die here, <laugh>. And then she told me not to touch anything. I know enough about electricity to know not to touch anything that's covered in water, and it has got an electrical charge in it. Um, these aren't necessarily safe spaces to be in, but they are providing electricity, um, in the camps. And these two generators are actually, um, providing most of the energy for CIMA one market. And so in this case, we're connected mostly to, um, to shops and to businesses within the, within the, within the refugee camp. Um, and that electricity is really seen as a key service by refugee families living in the camps. Um, in terms of how institutions access energy, this is what the diesel generator should look like. By the way, <laugh>, that's the picture you might be more commonly, uh, familiar with. Um, so far we've really seen more of a negative picture, um, of humanitarian supply of energy and provision being characterized as partial, as intermittent, as absent, as accidental, um, for institutions and humanitarian workers. However, energy access is provided in a really different way. Um, sometimes it's connection to a national grid or, or local grid. Um, and sometimes the, the government is involved in that. Many, many times it's a diesel generator like this one that's been shipped in from somewhere. And the diesel to fuel it has also been shipped in. It's all incredibly expensive. Um, and that this type of power is powering these types of pictures that I, that I showed earlier. Um, but that's for the institutions, that's not for the refugee homes, it's not for their community facilities. And it's very, very rarely for their shops and businesses. Um, informal energy markets are everywhere. This is refugee market. These are all little shops in Nki camp in Rwanda. Um, those informal energy markets exist in every camp that I've been to and every camp that all my colleagues have been to. Um, they are everywhere. And most of these businesses are created by created and run by refugees themselves. Um, with that knowledge, we can start to ask a few difficult questions. What does the existence of those independent markets say about humanitarian organizations and the services that they're supposed to be providing? Um, are humanitarian agencies always providing enough energy if informal markets are always there? And what is the political system surrounding, uh, energy supply and refugee camps, um, if there's so much independence? So that leads me onto the governance of access. Um, what does this all mean in terms of who is in charge, who supplies, and who decides? Um, I'm gonna talk a little bit about that <laugh> now. Um, first let's ask who is supplying energy in refugee camps? Is it national governments? Some logos? National government of Kenya, Rwanda of Jordan? Um, sometimes, sometimes it's them through national, um, grid connections. Um, for agencies, um, they do connect some displaced households and businesses, the national governments in countries such as Jordan and in the global north. Um, is it humanitarian agencies like U-N-H-C-R-I, om the World Food Program? They supply their own electricity, um, and they often buy their own diesel generators. Um, is it NGOs who are fixing the problem? Maybe again, they supply their own energy. They buy their own energy, they buy their own generators, and they also deliver projects. So they'll be the ones who are going out buying cook stoves, distributing 'em, buying lanterns, distributing them. Um, the group that almost never gets talked about, although I talk about 'em all the time, are displaced people themselves. Um, they buy their own energy, their lanterns, their cooking fuels as all the previous pictures showed. Um, and they pay a disproportionate amount for energy. Lots of increasingly a number of studies out there on that. Um, that refugees are estimated to be paying between 15 and 40% of their disposable income on energy. Um, if anybody in this audience is playing between 15 and 40% of your disposable income on energy, you are classified as being extremely fuel poor. And that the government here would intervene in that. I'll give you a fuel subsidy allowance. Um, these people aren't doing that, and you should. The fact that they are choosing to spend their disposable income on energy, I think shows the importance of it. Um, importantly, of all of these groups, the governments, the agencies, the NGOs, um, refugees themselves access most of their energy needs, um, independently or semi-independently, um, of humanitarian agencies to come onto who supplies. I put this giant orange box at the top there. Um, underneath almost all energy access and refugee camps is the privatized energy sector. Energy companies, businesses selling energy. This is not a public utility in the vast majority of cases, it's privatized. Um, and almost all countries in the world have a privatized energy sector. Um, I would say that as the previous slides have really shown, um, humanitarian agencies by their generator, that's also a privatized, um, solution. Um, and when I was preparing this talk, one of my colleagues mentioned that that might be surprising that it's so privatized, um, and that people might even be scandalized by the fact that profit is being made by the privatized energy sector of vulnerable refugees. But I feel certainly that energy challenges some of these preconceptions. And it starts to make us ask, well actually, you know, energy has to come from somewhere and it's going to be bought. You don't just get energy for free. You have to buy it. Everybody has to buy it, um, if they want it. Um, and that many people in refugee camps want and are able to work. And so they create these businesses themselves, these energy businesses, as a internal solution to some of these problems. Um, I think when I showed some of these slides, um, it starts to become very complicated. Some of the detail of the things that I work on. And there is a super complex ecosystem of actors at play. Um, and to understand that a little bit more, we can turn, turn to who governs this system, who's in charge of deciding how it is prepares off this slide. It's horrific. Um, I call it logo bingo, um, <laugh>. So who go governs energy in displacement settings. And I did wanna include all the logos so you can see, or not all, but some it, uh, see how incredibly complicated it is. Um, when we ask ourselves who governs energy in displacement settings, it's a really, really difficult question to ask. And the governance system surrounding the energy supply, um, camps is, um, is a hot mess, I think. Um, so you have humanitarian agencies. I quite often say they're doing control and access. If you wanna go to a refugee camp and do a sustainable energy project, you usually have to engage with these guys. Um, you have development agencies, UNDP, unap, some of the big dogs there. Unitar, uh, SC for all. They're more often than not in this context, providing expertise and skills. Um, in the middle there, you have implementing partners and NGOs, um, like GIZ, mercy Corps. Um, SMV, of course the Dutch, um, the Dutch deliverer. Um, and they're doing delivery of distribution of projects, not of all solutions. Um, research organizations have an increasingly important play, uh, role to play. They're often providing the data and the evidence and some of the core facts and knowledge around this sector. Um, and we wouldn't be really anywhere without Chatham House doing some of the first bits of work on this topic through the Moving Energy Initiative, um, and providing some of the baseline evidence that said, actually this is a thing, and here are some numbers about it. Um, the donors, of course, always, they've ubiquitous donors in international development. Um, in our space, in humanitarian energy, we see the IKEA foundation, we see the Norwegians, we see the Swedish, and we see British owned brand, uh, FCDO, the foreign and Commonwealth office, um, coming in and funding some of these projects. Those donors are providing funding and money and power, political power, and we shouldn't forget how important political power as well as actual power is. And in terms of who governs who or who does, we shouldn't forget the private sector. I've added them there. They're doing supply and they're doing provision. Um, and that private sector includes refugee energy entrepreneurs. Um, one of the reasons that we founded the GPA sitting down here to try and do soft coordination and governance, um, was to bring these actors together and try and be a bit more of a cohesive, uh, whole moving towards sustainable energy solutions and cheaper, more affordable, more reliable solutions in more places so that this started to become addressed in a systematic way rather than ad hoc way. Um, that's one of the reasons that we founded the GPA, um, that is sort of happening.<laugh>, on the other hand, you will see many of these institutions and agencies, um, and organizations working still ad hoc and in whatever way they see fit. Um, and indeed the governance of refugee camps, it might be seen as, as a coalition of, of actors. There are some notable people missing from these slides. Um, ICRC for example. Um, 'cause they're just going off and, and doing their own thing. Um, and that, that that coalition of actors is producing very, very mixed results. Um, I wanted to turn now to a couple of issues about, about the governance. Um, I think I've alluded to it, but I'll say it explicitly. Humanitarian responses are often chaotic and ad hoc. Um, and the governance of energy and refugee campuses really very complex. Um, energy is not governed in a traditional way. It's not like the humanitarian cluster system that you might have heard of for food and for water and for education and for all the other things that the clusters are for. Um, and refugees are not included in decision making on energy. So they don't get a say in this system that is there for them in theory, that is there for them. And refugees are being left behind in the global sustainable energy transition. And for those of you who are really deeply interested in this topic, in the transcript for this, in the slides that will, will be available online, there's proper evidence on that. You don't have to take my word for it, <laugh>. Um, this is also the finding of other people's. Um, before I wrap up, I just have a couple of thoughts and reflections about what does this all mean When we take a step back and reflect on this story as a whole, we see that picture of chaos, the humanitarian chaos that some so many of us live the reality of, um, within the provision of sustainable energy and refugee camps. Um, and we also see those refugees acting independently of the humanitarian system. And then we see this picture of exclusion of refugees not being provided with energy, but also excluded from that, that important decision making. Um, and for me, this really boils down to choices. Um, it's perhaps a little bit banal to say it's all political because what isn't. Um, but overall, I've found that energy is perceived as this super technical thing. Like, oh, it's just getting electrical engineers and get some solar panels and, you know, it's fine. Let's, you know, just decarbonize a little bit. Um, but it isn't a technological problem. Those technologies have been around for 20, 30, 40 years longer, some of them. Um, and this view that, oh, if we can just get the right technology to the right place with the right people, it'll all be solved, is just so unbelievably naive. I came into this sector believing that and have had my eyes rudely awakened over the last 10 years. Um, and that these small scale solutions of, oh, let's get a bit of solar and just do it here in this camp. Let's do a pilot. It's not gonna cut it. Um, it's not going to provide quality of life for refugees and their families. I'd also flag that different choices are being made in different locations. And so many of the pictures that I showed today of Rwanda and Kenya, um, where people only receive a limited amount of support on energy, that's very different in Jordan and it's very different in other countries. It's very different in the global north, um, where entire mini grids have been constructed. Where if you're a refugee family that moved to the global north, you access this and you pay through it for that system. Or, you know, you get some sort of subsidy to help with that. Um, and why is that choice about quality of life? Because energy access for me is about quality of life. And anybody who objects that statement, please go without energy for the next week of your life and see how you do in April in the uk, <laugh>, you'll be cold and you'll be hungry and you won't have your mobile phone. Um, and that those different choices about quality of life, about people in Kenya and Rwanda deserving less or getting less are really, really important. And if we're talking about energy justice in this space, we need to start thinking about some of those questions because for me, energy justice is not just about access to energy, but it's also about access to decision making. It's about political power. Um, and it's about inclusivity. Um, I would really encourage anybody who's interested in these topics to read the GPA's new policy report on inclusivity in humanitarian settings. Um, it's really quite brutal in places, and it really talks about why this issue is important. And it challenges that UN system that I've talked so much about. Um, the political challenges and the systematic barriers that we see in our sector just really reinforce the exclusion of displaced people in humanitarian energy planning and its implementation. And there is a need for inclusivity across all these different areas, across policy, across jobs, across research and innovation. And it's really hard to get that ball rolling when you're really talking about inclusive systematic change. Um, indeed there are a great many political barriers and vested interest to keeping refugees outta this decision making system. Um, and I quite often put forward that there should be an anthropology of institutions and that we should be holding the UN and other organizations accountable by really understanding what they do and how they work. Um, and yeah, there's a couple of other resources that that's, that are cited within this document that really start to unpick some of that and provide the evidence on it. Um, I am gonna quickly turn before I finish, to some positives to cheer us up at the end. I said I'd end on optimism and I shall. Um, I'm often asked by people, uh, what can I do directly to support refugees? I would encourage any of you that do want to directly support refugees, um, to find a way to do that directly with refugees rather than going through UN institutions, um, groups like give directly, for example, um, really support individual entrepreneurs and individuals in building up their life, um, in a very sustainable way. Um, or if you are interested in supporting programming, I would encourage you to support high quality humanitarian energy programming such as that run by Ashton through their Humanitarian Energy Award. Um, which provides funding to refugee entrepreneurs, um, who are working within their communities to supply those sustainable solutions. So there is, there's a lot of work like this happening. Um, I just think it's important to draw attention to it. Um, in terms of further resources before I, before I close up, um, there's a huge amount on the humanitarian energy GPA website, um, including their state of the sector report. This is one from 2022, which is a bit of a beast, but really starts to, to lay all of these issues, um, out in detail of any academics or any students who are listening or in the audience. Um, there are some papers written on it, not just by me. Um, and we've created a RO library who knows about ro yes, <laugh>. There's a whole RO library, um, full of it that we regularly keep updated to start trying to get the message out there and get people using these resources in an academic way, in a research, um, way. Um, and as a tiny bit of self-promotion, <laugh>. Um, I also have a book out on these issues in October, voices in the Dark is the title of the book published as part of the Bergh Kind Force migration series in October. Um, and for those who are interested in this topic, um, that brings some of these lived experience stories, a couple of which I shared today, um, really to life and shares a lot of those stories about why energy is important. Um, so I will stop talking now and next face your questions. Thank you. Thank you, Sarah. That was fabulous. Um, I have some questions coming in from the outside, and then I think they're undoubtedly gonna be questions from you all. Why don't we start with one of you ready? Do you want me to say that straight away? Yeah. And I'll just repeat for the people online, uh, you're asking a question about the role of, um, energy entrepreneurs and if they're, um, a positive thing, I guess, or if they're seen as, um, uh, as a mafia. Um, that depends on the scale of them. Most of them are seen as positive and as just refugees creating their own business and trying to do the best that they can. Um, and what I see a lot of especially is that those people being very supportive of members of their own community. So for example, in cima, a lot of, um, people coming from Somalia and saying, oh, well, you know, you are Somalia as well, so I'll give you a discount, but charging higher rates to the Ugandans and things like that. Community trades almost, that's generally seen as positive in some of the bigger camps in Dadaab and in cima. It, there is that mafia element to it. Um, and people who started with a small generator then managing to really earn a lot of money from that and being able to buy more generators and power certain spaces. Um, and that isn't necessarily so pleasant, but I would call it soft and positive mafia rather than the terrifying, you know, Sicilian version. If I have a follow up question, um, if that is positive for them. So if we have institutions providing like, you know, free service, are we taking, you know, their ability to, to create a livelihood as well? You know, that balance? Yeah. Yeah. There are. And I think the IKEA foundation would be the first to hold their hands up to this. Years ago they created a, a project called Bri Lives for Refugees under the sort of Tom's model, if you guys know that, where you could buy a solar lantern, uh, for your garden in a, an IKEA store here anywhere. And, um, then they would give away a refugee. Uh, they would give away a solar lantern to a refugee. And this, um, was a huge program. It was millions and millions of dollars, and they gave away, um, thousands and thousands of lanterns. And those giving away of lanterns destroyed solar markets in several places because they were coming with all these free solar lanterns. And then the guys running the shops were like, uh, but you can also buy ours. And people are like, no, we got it for free. And it temporarily destroyed livelihoods. And the foundation learned from that, and now they don't do that, um, model anymore, which is great, but it, the damage was done. Um, and so if people are giving away energy for free, I would never encourage energy to be given away for free. Um, then it, it can have that kind of negative livelihood and, and business impact. There are two questions here actually about security and borrowing. Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>, um, which we noticed when we were looking at the hilltop refugee camper, there's the tower. Yeah, yeah. Uh, and something that I saw quite a bit in Egypt is, is there not borrowing from the national grid in camps? And then the second question is, do NGOs who are involved in the, in arranging for power or managing power access, are they also involved in security and having to deal with theft issues and so on? Yeah. Yeah. And those are quite separate questions in a way. So the, the borrowing from the national grid, um, it happens sometimes, but not so often because it's, it's actually quite difficult to like sling a wire over a national grid thing and not get noticed. What's easier to not get noticed is if you plug something into a plug socket somewhere. Um, and that can be a, like powering a lot of things. And I've seen whole trails of extension cables where it's an extension cable extended to an extension cable extended to an extension cable that's then powering somebody's house, you know, almost like half a mile away sort of thing. And you're following these cables around thinking, what is happening here, <laugh>? Um, it's a bit wild. Um, the second question was about theft and about vandalism, I think. Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>. Yeah. Um, that does happen, especially for some of the solar streetlights. Some of the initial solar streetlight investments in Kma, for example, were, were really planned very poorly, and they were put right next to people's homes. And if you imagine going to a football field at night with the really industrial light shining down on you, they were using that sort of technology because it's cost effective and it provides a lot of light, but it was shining directly into people's homes and backyards, and people were vandalizing it because it had been, they were like, why didn't you put it further down? Why didn't you put it in the middle of the street? Instead of it literally in my, not in my backyard type of mentality, but in a positive way. And also kids love, there's a lot of boredom in the camps, and kids would throw stones at the lanterns and the, and the streetlights because they were bored, not because they wanted to vandalize a useful resource, particularly, um, the theft that happens is mostly around batteries and around copper wiring, um, because it's valuable and you can sell it. Um, and so refugees are involved in, um, security. Sometimes when a project is well planned, they're also hired as security guards to make sure that that isn't happening. Um, but yeah, there is some theft and vandalism like everywhere really. Yes, exactly. Yeah. Front, front of you. Yes. Yes. Uh, when a family comes to a, a refugee camp and they've got nothing and they've got no job, lots of kids, where do they get the money from to start buying anything? Food or energy? Yeah. I actually get asked, do you want to do two questions at once or? Yeah. Okay, gentlemen, Thank you very much. Um, has any research been done about the, uh, generative equipment that is being used in refugee camps? Uh, how it has affected the lives of refugees? Uh, IE dioxide carbon or humidity or, uh, smoking or people who use gas cylinders are quite dangerous and I know a number of people lose their lives in different countries. Yeah. Across Europe even. Yeah. Great. Um, the income question I get asked quite often, um, most refugees, um, have either a small amount of income coming from a group, an agency like UNHR or WFP, um, they will give out what are called cash transfers. And so people will get a small amount, very small amount, um, sometimes it's less than a dollar a day, um, to be able to buy food, to be able to buy clothes and, and core appliances. When people arrive, they quite often get, um, uh, kits that contain a cook, a cooking pan, some blankets, um, some things to help their, their tent, for example, if it's a really an emergency situation. Um, so people aren't left with absolutely nothing. Um, but it's also a bit of a myth that refugees come with nothing. Some, some do. Um, but many times the people who have managed to flee a conflict are actually the slightly wealthier from within a community. So they come with resources, not many, um, but they, they do that. Um, and some also set up trades within the camp so that they can trade informally and they start to get their money rolling through that. And one of the biggest sources in refugee camps is remittances, is people who either left back home or have relocated abroad, and those people will send their family members money. Um, so almost all refugees have an income of some kind. Um, it's not necessarily a formalized job where you pay taxes and you've got a registered bank account, but they do have income. Um, for the second question on, on the impact of lives, um, there hasn't been that much research done on the connection between energy and quality of life in a refugee camp. So I would love to see more done and more evidence provided on that about why it's so important. Um, but there have been studies done on the, on the dangers and on the negatives and the problems. Um, for example, in the refugee camps in Cox's Bazaar that host the house, the ref, the Rohingya that Greg's talk was about a few weeks ago, um, about the impact there of gas canisters, um, not exploding.'cause actually that that doesn't happen so often, but there being a fire near a gas canister and then it exploding, that does happen. And that gas fueling a fire as that, that's already going. That happens several times in the refugee camps. And in fact, a couple of occasions, refugees come, you know, trying to protest about their quality of life by setting those fires, um, in order to show the quality of life that they were living in, because a big fire in a refugee camp gets international media coverage, um, which is devastating that they have to resort to burning their own homes to get attention. Um, I don't know if there's been that much quantitative research, if that's what you're asking about that. Um, but yeah, happy to talk later about some of the facts and figures that we have. There's a question online about whether providing services, which adds to quality of life is also a way of preventing people from going home. But can it backfire in that way? In other words, semi-permanent a situation where people would actually like to leave? Yeah, yeah. We came up against this a lot in the early days.<laugh>, um, not really. I mean, if a refugee camp like Kama Camp has been there since 1992, um, some of the camps in Palestine have been there since 1947. Like some of these camps have been there for generations. The, the, the early Rohingya migrations, um, have been there since the seventies. Um, and so this isn't really about, most of these camps are permanent or semi-permanent, even if the government doesn't of the country doesn't label them like that for political reasons. You know, if something's been there for 30 years, it's pretty hard to dismantle it and move those people. Um, as the proposed closure of DAB Camp in Kenya really shows they couldn't close it, even though the government has said multiple times that they will, they've had to move people to cama. They've moved people around, they've given many people the right to live and work in, in Kenya as Kenya Nationals. Um, I don't think it incentivizes people to stay as refugees. If people are going to go home, uh, go back to their country of origin or they're going to become relocated. That's to do with factors other than energy. I would say it's very, very rare that it's a, that energy is a contributing factor in that, um, what energy is a contributing factor in is having a higher quality of life where those people are right now. Um, but yeah, unfortunately that is the public perception that people will go home and that these are short term solutions, uh, that situations. Sometimes they are, but rarely, most refugee camps have been in existence over 10 years already. Um, Thank you for your, uh, talk. Um, given you've just said a few minutes ago that you would never advocate energy being given away for free, what would your position be and do you think there's any scope for people like, uh, United Nations agencies, uh, integrating energy, for example, PV in shelters and tents that they provide right from the outset, which then would Okay, it would prevent Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>, uh, a local market developing, but it would provide the energy. What would you say to that? And, and there have been examples of that. For example, the Ikea better shelters, they try and have a solar panel attached with them, and is, is given as part of the kit to build the, the sort of, um, structural tents that, if you can describe it that way, that is the better shelter tent. Um, so there have been solutions like that. Um, my positionality would be in, in theory it looks like a good thing because then you arrive and you've got a tent or a house with solar installed already, um, or with any energy technology installed. Um, and so integrating it in theory would be a good thing. But if it's not done systematically and it's not done substantively, then it's just a solar panel on your roof that's providing a couple of light bulbs and that will break or need cleaning or need repairing. Um, because energy is, is is not something you can just fix with one solar panel. You need a whole system behind it. And so those types of solutions are put forward as a short term solution rather than a medium or a long term one. And if we're looking at quality fi, we need to be looking at medium and long term. So I wouldn't particularly advocate for it, even though it looks like a good thing. Um, just as I don't particularly advocate for solar lanterns to be given away in the emergency kits that people get when they arrive somewhere. If that's done great, it might support that, it might help that, but it won't meet medium term or long term needs, and it probably won't meet anything beyond lighting as well. Um, I prefer to advocate for systematic, you know, overhaul, <laugh> systematic change. Yeah. There's finally a question about UK refugee accommodation and whether these issues apply here as well. I'm, I'm here in this country or in Rwanda? Yes. No, in the, yeah. In the uk In this country. Um, uh, one there's, I, I guess you could almost group refugees in this country into two, into two sets. People who are in temporary accommodation or transit centers and those people are using institutional energy. So those places will be powered in, in the same way any community central swimming pool would be powered. Um, and so they will be accessing that energy. So these types of camp issues, especially on the cooking side, they'll have their food cooked for them most of the time or have access to a communal kitchen. So it's a very different situation, um, for people that are, have gone, have gone beyond that and moved into private rented accommodation. Fuel poverty is one of the, the biggest things that they face. Um, but that's about being able to pay, you know, Scottish Gas or Eon or somebody or energy bill. That's not so much about energy, energy being available. That's about whether individual refugee families can afford to pay for it or if they are living in fuel poverty if they only have a small income. So is the answer yes, sort of <laugh>? Yeah. Final far from the room? Yes. Uh, thank you for the talk. It was really good and interesting. Um, I just wondered if you were aware of any, uh, cooperatives within the camps, um, in trying to run the generators themselves? Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>. Mm-Hmm.<affirmative>. Um, yes, in some countries that that happens. And in some locations in Kma, for example, um, parts of the Ethiopian community, that's actually how one of the energy markets there started. Ethiopians got together and they all put in whatever they could afford, and somebody bought a big generator and then they got subsidized power from that. Um, and in Ethiopia itself, in the refugee camps in Ethiopia, um, that is a more common model because the private sector is, it's not quite forbidden from working there, but it's strongly disapproved of. Um, so in, in Ethiopia that's the case. Um, in other countries where you would expect to see it happen, like in Bangladesh, for example, where that model would work with the Rohingya communities and would evolve naturally, um, it's, it's crushed by the national government. Um, and they don't want to see access there because they don't want to see those people there. And they think if people get together, organized in communities and, uh, coalitions around electricity or energy, they'll start to become, um, organized in other ways. And so they try and strip away those political, well, physical abilities and then political abilities as well. But yeah, you do see it in some cases. Uh, mercy Corps have funded a big project on it, if you're interested in that, called Enter Energy. I believe the project's called Anything final you would like to leave us with? Uh, no, just, I hope it hasn't been too depressing. It is actually a really inspiring, deeply wonderful area to work in, and I've committed my life to it <laugh>. Um, it isn't as depressing as I've made it look, but it is almost that depressing. Well, actually what one of the things that your photos showed and what you said was the, the people working there and, and organizing from the bottom up with tremendous intelligence and spirit. So that I think is something that Optim optimistic we can still draw on. Optimistic. Yeah. Yeah. Please join me in, uh, thanking Sarah very warmly for.