ACCESS TO SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

The Organization Through it’s Foosteer Light Initiative, support poverty reduction mission by developing and delivering RE (Renewable Energy) systems to rural households and businesses in SSA(sub-sahara africa). While the focus was on pv shs, foosteer initiatives based in Nigeria also supported agro-business, biomass and gas projects.

Foosteer has a secondary mandate, that of helping connect rural areas to the world through (solar-powered) information technology. Although registered as an NGO, it is run, for the most part, as a not-for-profit enterprise. The organization’s solar PV program represents its largest business line, purchasing solar PV panels and other systems components (i.e., batteries) from a range of foreign and local suppliers; and assembling, selling, installing, and, where necessary, financing them. 

The Nigerian market for SHS is considered to be relatively large. Approximately 75 percent of households do not have accessibility to electricity, low levels of urbanization, and a very slow political and economic reform process have made establishing a traditional energy network (or grid) very challenging. Furthermore, the high density of the Nigerian population means that, even in rural areas, there are significant concentrations of potential consumers. 

The first renewable energy initiative (Installation of 650w SHS in an off-grid residential building) that foosteer implemented was a donor-led and focused on demonstrating the functionality of the technology, FISHANDHOOKS GLOBAL NETWORK awarded the project in 2013  the project was implemented same year, the system is still functioning till date.

Foosteer Light Initiative tagged SUSTAINABLE ENERGY ACCESS PROGRAMME is a project with two major components; system 1&2, Solar Lamp Rental System (SLRS) and Solar Home System (SHS) respectively.

The Solar Lamp Rental System SLRS, powered by community charging stations provides cleaner, safer, better lighting. An integrated micro-processor on the lamps provides accurate records of kerosene replacement, while the Solar Home Systems SHS can power smaller community businesses. i.e Barber’s shop, Provision shops etc

Characteristics of target population includes:

Off-grid populations (especially rural) households with relatively high energy expenses and no access to grid electricity or other reliable and affordable electricity supply sources, strong emphasis is on the “Base of the Pyramid” (BoP) households with a daily income below USD 2, also Off-grid, rural micro-enterprises such as village kiosks, agro-processors and community centers that are currently dependent on diesel generation sets for electricity supply.

WHAT WE DO:

A Private Energy Provider (PEP) for off-grid areas

• Renting out SHS for fixed monthly tariffs

• Selling KWh in villages with Village Grids

• Selling light per hour/bar with portable battery lamps

PROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY: 

140 million people in Nigeria still have no reliable access to power.

The traditional electricity grid will reach neither half of this population.

Despite this, most of them are served by mobile networks.

FOOSTEER INITIATIVE FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT offers Micropower – small-scale, local energy for off-grid and underserved communities.

Agriculture is a cornerstone of Nigeria’s economy, with cultivation of cash crop meant to serve as a major employer approximately 32%. Energy is an important part of modern  Nigeria agriculture, accounting for 25 percent of input costs. A lack of stable and available energy sources is an issue, which leads farmers to rely on expensive, polluting diesel generators as a backup source.

FOOSTEER INITIATIVE FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT provides Solar-powered agro-processing machinery with focus on Sustainability through commercial viability for both the agro-allied entrepreneur and their respective business patronage.

MISSION FOR LIGHT INITIATIVE:

Our mission is to develop profitable business opportunities in Nigeria and in Sub-Sahara Africa while meeting community energy and connectivity needs, effecting a Technology and Know-how Transfer particularly in West-Africa countries by catalyzing at least US$20 million in investment for medium scale off-grid energy projects over the next two years, which will increase access to electricity for African enterprises and impact the lives of millions of power users in these countries. This ambitious vision requires an elevated partnership built around concrete commercial and developmental interests.

Supporting a Girl’s Right to Learn

Why educate women and girls? 



Societies prosper when women and girls are educated. Educated women are healthier and earn higher incomes that can lift their households out of poverty. And the benefits are transferred to their children, who are better educated and have better health care. Communities and countries benefit from a more educated workforce, and increasing women’s participation in the formal economy through education leads to greater economic growth.

Not only is educating women and girls essential to achieve higher levels of economic growth and development, it is also the right thing to do for humanity. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child both establish girls’ education as a human right.
Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made toward achieving gender equality in education. Girls’ enrollment in education has increased at all levels. For example, sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the greatest growth in girls’ enrollment in primary education. Yet, there is still much work to be done.
It is estimated that worldwide, 62 million girls — half of whom are adolescent — are not in school. And the disparity in gender in education remains quite real today worldwide, with 78 percent of girls dropping out of school, compared to 48 percent of boys.

The United States has made substantial investments to prioritize girls’ education around the world. I experienced those investments firsthand in my work at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, an innovative United States international development agency that has done groundbreaking work throughout the world.





One example is a project done in Burkina Faso. Recognizing the substantial number of primary-school- age students who were out of school in West Africa in general, and Burkina Faso in particular, MCC partnered with the United States Agency for International Development to invest in a project called Burkinabé Response to Improve Girls’ Chances to Succeed — BRIGHT. The goal of BRIGHT was to improve the quality of primary education, with an emphasis on increasing access for girls.

Working closely with the government of Burkina Faso, a nationwide analysis was performed to identify where girls’ education rates were the lowest. The project built 132 primary schools, with classes from first grade through sixth grade in the identified provinces. The project also constructed 122 preschools in key communities to better prepare students for the leap to primary school.
A key aspect of the project was its focus on engaging the community to offer ideas to eliminate barriers to school attendance for area children. As a result, the project included a key social mobilization effort to support adult literacy and technical skills necessary to better equip parents to support their children’s educational needs.

The project also embraced other social supports that were critical to encouraging student attendance and ensuring that students entered school capable of learning and retaining their lessons. Burkinabé girls too often drop out of school to get married, work around the homestead, or stay away because their schools lack private restrooms; boys often leave school to work in gold mines; and boys and girls miss school because of hunger or illness.
To alleviate these obstacles, MCC funded sacks of dry rice for home consumption during the school year. The project built 264 private latrines. And dug 10 boreholes and rehabilitated another seven to provide students access to safe drinking water.

What this partnership between international organizations, the national and local governments, parents and communities demonstrates is that there is a role for everyone to play in creating a safe, healthy and encouraging learning environment for girls. But it’s not the size of this project that makes it significant. It is government and communities coming together to make education a priority and to identify and dismantle social barriers that keep girls and boys from attending school. And the results are an affirmation of their shared commitment.
The BRIGHT Project increased primary school enrollment, attendance and completion rates for girls in 10 of the country’s 45 provinces. Over a 20-year period, the BRIGHT Schools Project is expected to benefit more than 272,000 students, parents and community leaders.
The BRIGHT Project is just one example of what can be done when gender equality in education is made a priority.

The point of this example is not that large sums of money are the solution to the problem. At the heart of the solution are individual stakeholders and local organizations working together within communities to identify and remove obstacles to educating girls.
A perfect example of this is happening in Malawi. There, organizations are mobilizing “mother groups” at primary schools to monitor girls’ attendance and encourage girls who have left because of pregnancy or marriage to return to school. Many of these mother groups are also producing sanitary pads and selling them to girls at reasonable prices to eliminate a real obstacle to school attendance.
We know the facts and we know the way forward, and each of us must take it upon ourselves to commit to the imperative of furthering gender equality in education. There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast … go alone. If you want to go far … go together.” If we can come together to guarantee a quality education to women and girls, we all will go far.

Source: https://yali.state.gov/courses/women-girls-1/