Attachments
Executive summary
Energy is essential to meet basic human needs, yet the majority of refugee and host community households in Refugee hosting areas have minimal access to basic sources of energy. They rely primarily on firewood and charcoal, whose use drives deforestation and land degradation. This review summarizes the existing literature on energy for household use in refugee-hosting districts of Uganda and provides information on the background, advances, challenges, and recommendations on energy for household use. Energy is used at household level to meet basic needs and to facilitate domestic tasks. Energy for household uses is often separated into two distinct areas: 1) electricity for lighting and powering devices; and 2) energy for cooking. Energy access and utilisation is a multidimensional issue influenced by factors like the availability, affordability, efficiency, and safety of the energy source. In rural or remote areas where only 5% of households have grid access, there have been efforts to increase access to off-grid solutions for lighting. A majority of refugee households use low-watt pico-PV solar lighting products (38%), non-rechargeable torches (36%), or solar home systems (12%).1 Few refugee (3%) and host community (12%) households use fuel-based energy, like kerosene lamps or candles. The main barriers to adopting clean energy for lighting are availability, affordability, and willingness to pay. In regard to cooking, the majority of refugee and host community households (99%) use wood biomass, in the form of firewood or charcoal. Most households use the traditional three-stone open fire, with greater use in host communities (76%) than refugee households (46%).2 There is low adoption of briquettes, but local groups have received support to manually produce briquettes in select refugee settlements. The use of cleaner fuels (e.g. liquid petroleum gas, electricity, biogas) in settlements is limited. The main challenges to improving energy for cooking are the awareness, affordability, willingness to pay, availability in local markets, the perceived change in taste of food, and gender roles in financial decision-making.3 To improve household access to energy in refugee settlements, actors can continue to encourage the adoption of efficient cooking technologies while increasing electricity access over the long term. Strategies that can be scaled up are increasing the demand and supply of nonwood fuels like biomass briquettes, improving access to flexible financing, strengthening supply chains for energy products, engaging women in energy businesses and value chains, and strengthening coordination between key actors.