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On Friday 18^th October 2019, HEED hosted a workshop in Kathmandu for representatives of the internally displaced communities, who are involved in the HEED project in Nepal. The event was led by Professor Elena Gaura in partnership with project partners Practical Action. The aim of the event was to present some of the lessons learned through the project, particularly in Nepal, which can be applied not only to humanitarian energy projects but also to other off-grid energy access interventions.

The workshop started with a review of the HEED project, including an opportunity for attendees to view the photo and video exhibition on the journey of the Nepal project. This was followed by a discussion on co-design processes for community energy interventions, for example, the solar streetlights intervention in the camps in Uttargaya, Nepal.

Opening up conversations on the co-design process provides an opportunity for the communities involved in the HEED project to provide feedback on the challenges and best practice, ensuring the development of inclusive, fit-for-purpose and sustainable energy interventions.

This workshop also allowed Elena and the team to find out more about how self-governance is understood and envisaged by internally displaced communities and the meaning of ‘community ownership’ of energy systems to them.

This will enable the HEED project to develop energy design protocols that centre on community-based needs and aspirations, encouraging and supporting long-term sustainable, community-appropriate and transformative energy solutions.

Solar Street lights @HEED Edoardo Santangelo

Interface Workshops, 28th November 2019, Kigeme, Rwanda

Following the installation of the micro-grid in Kigeme refugee camp, the HEED team returned to the camp on the 28^th of November 2019 to host a workshop to hear from the community on the current and potential use of the micro-grid and to showcase the user interface designs.

The workshop, led by Sandy Robinson and Vijay Bhopal from Scene, along with other team members from Practical Action and Coventry University, was attended by over 20 participants, including Mesh Power, who installed the micro-grid.

The function of the micro-grid installed by HEED in Kigeme Camp is to provide energy via lighting and sockets to two nursery schools and a playground. Although the micro-grid is a sustainable energy solution in delivering sufficient energy to the nurseries, the workshop provided an opportunity for the participants to explore the ways in which energy from the micro-grid can be better utilised.

As the nurseries are operating seasonally, there are times when the buildings are closed, and therefore using little or no power, however, the micro-grid does not currently have the capacity to add new buildings to the system.

As a result, many participants felt the community would benefit from having interactivity with the micro-grid so they could manage the use of energy more effectively. The discussions illustrated the active engagement of the community in thinking about how best to maximise the use of energy created by the micro-grid.

Directly after this session, Sandy and the team, along with participants, played a game specialised devised to get the participants thinking about energy as a finite resource. Participants had to negotiate and share finite ‘energy tokens’. Vijay commented that:

‘We practised this the day before and simplified it. The participants loved the game and really got it. It was a good way of demonstrating the idea of energy as a finite resource, and it segued into a discussion on how the community can manage the energy resource themselves’.

After lunch and during monsoon style torrential rains, the HEED team divided the participants into two groups to showcase the user interface designs, one lead by Vijay and the other by Jordan Silverman, technical manager at Scene.

In Gihembe – another refugee camp in Rwanda in which the HEED project is also working – an interface board is already installed that are connected with multi-functional solar streetlights, which show through a series of flashing lights when the streetlight has sufficient power to support additional devices.

In involving the community in thinking about an interface for micro-grid, conversations emerged about governance systems, as well as the interface itself. The insights gained from the sessions demonstrate the importance of incorporating information about the ways in which energy interventions will continue after the project has finished into the design process.

Community Co-design Workshop, 18th October 2019, Kathmandu, Nepal

On Friday 18^th October 2019, HEED hosted a workshop in Kathmandu for representatives of the internally displaced communities, who are involved in the HEED project in Nepal. The event was led by Professor Elena Gaura in partnership with project partners Practical Action. The aim of the event was to present some of the lessons learned through the project, particularly in Nepal, which can be applied not only to humanitarian energy projects but also to other off-grid energy access interventions.

The workshop started with a review of the HEED project, including an opportunity for attendees to view the photo and video exhibition on the journey of the Nepal project. This was followed by a discussion on co-design processes for community energy interventions, for example, the solar streetlights intervention in the camps in Uttargaya, Nepal.

Opening up conversations on the co-design process provides an opportunity for the communities involved in the HEED project to provide feedback on the challenges and best practice, ensuring the development of inclusive, fit-for-purpose and sustainable energy interventions.

This workshop also allowed Elena and the team to find out more about how self-governance is understood and envisaged by internally displaced communities and the meaning of ‘community ownership’ of energy systems to them.

This will enable the HEED project to develop energy design protocols that centre on community-based needs and aspirations, encouraging and supporting long-term sustainable, community-appropriate and transformative energy solutions.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is hosting the first Global Refugee Forum on 17 and 18 December 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland. The event, which is being held at Ministerial level, brings together countries to strengthen international responses by focusing on six areas: arrangements for burden and responsibility-sharing, education, jobs and livelihoods, energy and infrastructure, solutions, and protection capacity.

The forum is part of the implementation of the Global Compact on Refugees, agreed by the UN General Assembly in December 2018. The driving principles of the Global Compact on Refugees is to find ways of improving global responses to refugee situations. This will include greater support for the countries and communities who are welcoming refugees and simultaneously, delivering programmes that improve conditions and generate pathways to encourage refugee self-reliance.

Related events will be held ahead of the Forum in Geneva, including the spectacular lighting of the city’s iconic Jet d’Eau and an exhibition of crafts by MADE51 – an initiative bringing beautiful refugee-made products to a global market.

If you have questions, please contact the Global Refugee Forum Coordination Team at hqgrf@unhcr.org.

The jet d’eau water fountain in Lake Geneva, Switzerland 

On October the 3rd 2019, after the panel discussion featuring Professor Elena Gaura on ‘Refugees and Technology’, Chatham House hosted a drinks reception and photo exhibition on energy in the displaced setting. The exhibition curated by HEED showcased the work of Edoardo Santangelo, a humanitarian photographer, who has spent the last 18 months working alongside HEED in Nepal and Rwanda recording the lived experiences with energy initiatives in the displaced context.

Drawing on his extensive knowledge of energy and international development, Edoardo uses photoreportage as a way to record the impact of development programmes in the lives of the displaced. His photos have been published in various editions of the Poor People Energy Outlook and used in numerous humanitarian publications, workshops and conferences worldwide.

After opening the exhibition with a reflection on the photos by Edoardo, attendees had an opportunity to talk with HEED team members about the project aims and objectives. HEED, in commissioning Edoardo to produce a visual storytelling of the project, hopes to encourage other research studies to think creatively about how to capture the ways refugees and displaced communities encounter energy and respond to energy initiatives.

The Moving Energy Initiative, a Chatham House project, seeks to increase knowledge about the current energy situation in the displaced context. As part of that remit is raising awareness the impact of new technologies have on the lives of displaced populations.  On Tuesday, 3rd of October 2019, Chatham House, under the direction of Owen Grafham from the Moving Energy Initiative, invited HEED project’s co-investigator, Professor Elena Gaura, to be part of a panel discussion on ‘Refugees and Technology’. On the panel, alongside Elena, were Jenny Casswell, from Mobile for Humanitarian Innovation, GSMA, and Moulid Hujale, Humanitarian Journalist and Digital Producer.

The panel addressed how refugees are informing technological innovations that reflect lived practices and ways to develop best practice to safeguard refugees when using technology, such as algorithmic bias, violations of privacy and data breaches. Elena, along with the other panellists, also emphasised how important it is to give refugees a platform to engage with and understand new technology that improves energy sources as it assists with community cohesion and develops livelihood opportunities.

The Moving Energy Initiative is working with the UK Department for International Development (DFID), Energy 4 Impact, and a consortium of other expert organisations. The project has a range of initiatives, including the publication of a global level report, Heat, Light and Power for Refugees: Saving Lives, Reducing Costs, and pilot projects in Jordan, Kenya and Burkina Faso.

Photo@MEI

As one of sixteen EPSRC projects that showcased at the EPSRC ‘Engineering Research for Grand Challenges,’ HEED  spoke with future engineers about the role engineering and digital technology has in planning for the energy needs and aspirations in the displaced context.

The stand, hosted by team members from Coventry University, Professor Elena Gaura and Dr Nandor Verba, was visited by a range of interested parties, including engineers, researchers, innovators, entrepreneurs and policymakers, to hear about the HEED energy design interventions, such as cookstove monitors and solar street lighting.

Elena and Nandor were impressed by the responses to the aims of the project and hope that this will encourage greater investment to address energy poverty, one of the most urgent global societal challenges.

The event, which took place on the 17th Sept, was held at the Southbank Centre, London, as part of The Global Grand Challenges Summit, a jointly hosted event by UK, US, and Chinese academies of Engineering.