In many countries, provision of energy services is often constrained by poor energy infrastructures owing to limited financial resources and investment from governments. Engaging the private sector in providing energy services in rural areas through Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) is seen as one of viable strategic options whenever possible. One of the main obstacles to establishing PPPs in rural areas for improving energy services is low return of investments. Therefore, successful PPP initiatives in rural areas require government agencies to work closely with community-based businesses and entrepreneurs and local communities in all stages of project development and operation.

There are three factors, which are particularly important and need attention for the development of a pro-poor PPP (5P) project: 1) how to attract private sector investment through appropriate policy and institutional frameworks; 2) how to make basic services (requiring energy) affordable for households and income generating activities; and 3) how to make project operations more effective and sustainable.

In light of this, the present project seeks to build capacity of governments and other stakeholders on PPPs for promoting renewable energy services in rural areas. Different modalities of PPPs and their merits, barriers and prospects of success will be examined and demonstrated in different regions/areas based on economic and social conditions. The project will focus on countries with special needs (CSN) taking into account lessons learned and experiences from different regions.

The project will be implemented through a learning-by-doing approach to increase awareness and understanding of the issues on widening access to energy services for the rural poor. Various activities including assessments, case studies, gap analysis, policy dialogues, workshops and study tours will be organized at the national, regional and inter-regional levels, and pilot projects based on business models will be conducted in selected countries.

Furthermore, the project is expected to demonstrate to stakeholders, especially the private sector, the benefits and merits of PPP on improving access to energy services in rural areas while contributing to the reasonable profits of the private sector.

Collaboration with existing regional and sub-regional institutions and centers of excellence is expected to sustain and enhance project impacts and ensure sharing of good practices at the regional and inter-regional levels. The project will benefit from the work already done by ESCAP and its partner organizations.

The objective of the project is to build capacity of policymakers, civil society and the private sector for engaging public-private partnerships to enhance the application of renewable energy and improve access to energy services.

• To fulfill the stated objective/s, the project expects to achieve the following accomplishments:

• EA1

  Enhanced capacity of participating countries to develop effective policies and programs to scale up the use of renewable energy for integrated rural development and create an enabling environment to deploy PPPs in enhancing and widening access to affordable renewable energy services in rural areas of developing countries

  EA2	Enhanced collaboration on the application of PPPs for better access to energy services among existing regional and sub-regional institutions and centers of excellence

  EA3	Increased use of locally available renewable energy resources, such as biomass, small hydro, solar and wind, through the development and implementation of demonstration projects and initiatives on PPPs

• To reach the expected accomplishments, the project will conduct the following main activities during the 3-year implementation period (2011-2013):

• MA1

  Conducting a regional assessment of policy options, good practices and business models for PPP on the provision of renewable energy services in rural areas, detailed descriptions of market segmentation, impact on men and women, financial and institutional arrangements for project design and management, and the roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders

  MA2

  Regional and national capacity-building through training, seminars and study tours for policymakers, decision makers and member of national teams as advocates of partnership models; development of guidelines and training materials, including training modules on enabling environment for establishing PPP and on the criteria for selection of appropriate partnership models that are responsive to specific development needs as well as their affordability in different client communities. A national team will be formed in each selected country to implement the activities

  MA3	Developing demonstration projects, in consultation with host countries, partner institutions, the private sector and the UN country teams to ensure synergies with other related initiatives. The national team from ESCAP, ECA and ECLAC region will identify and implement one each collaborative demonstration project with PPP model in support of the development of strategies and policies focusing on energy services for cooking, lighting and productive use of renewable energy resources for sustainable and inclusive development in rural areas
  MA4	Organizing two regional and sub-regional forums to share experiences, lessons learned and best practices on PPP approaches and to initiate effective network among relevant institutions, universities and centers for sharing information and sustaining capacity-building activities. These forums could be combined with relevant events in order to reach more audiences
  MA5	Undertaking an evaluation of the project by an external consultant and discussing the findings of the evaluation report with all project implementation partners

For more information, please write to: escap-esdd-ers@un.org