Sustainable access to modern energy services for South Africa’s urban and rural poor. How can research contribute

Abstract

The global development agenda has become increasingly focused on poverty reduction in response to the dire state of the populations of most developing country populations, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. At the top of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is the alleviation of extreme poverty and hunger. In line with this, both the New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Southern African Development Community have poverty reduction as the overarching goal of their programmes. South Africa, though relatively well developed in comparison with other African states, has one of the world’s highest levels of inequality, with high levels of affluence co-existing with grinding poverty. This has often been blamed for the high crime levels and bouts of social unrest. Clearly, scientific research must pay attention to addressing increasingly urgent issues around poverty, and work closely with policy makers. A correlation has been demonstrated between per capita modern energy consumption and development indicators such as GNP per capita. There has been a general failure in initiatives meant to deliver modern energy services to the poor. The central issues in successful delivery of modern energy services to the poor revolve around clear understanding of the needs and circumstances of the poor, and clear communication of the positive and negative implications of any intended interventions for the poor. This paper, based on a survey of the literature, highlights the poverty-focussed efforts within the CSIR energy sector to address the question of how to define the multi-faceted needs of a poor communities and implement integrated solutions that address their needs