SEPARLE – Sustainable Energy Powering Agriculture Livelihoods Enhancement
By Mandulis Energy Ltd.
The energy and clean cooking needs of refugees are addressed by a limited distribution of expensive briquettes and solar lamps. Few have access to these, and many cut trees to use as cooking fuel, thus contributing to deforestation that also affects host communities. Low income and lack of clean and affordable energy sources disproportionately affect women and children, who form over 87% of refugees, while deforestation from firewood affects host communities. Mandulis Energy seeks to address the lack of clean, affordable and sustainable energy sources for the over 2 million people living in refugee resettlements and host communities in Uganda, while increasing refugee and host household incomes by $940 CND annually and reducing the need of subsidies by aid organizations, such as the UNHCR.
Mandulis Energy seeks to partner with refugees in their zero-waste model, providing refugees with access to innovative milling facilities, using the derived agricultural processing waste to produce non-carbonised briquettes and renewable electricity, that the refugee households can use as clean cooking fuel. This solution will improve security and relationships with host communities, will improve public health and air quality, reduce deforestation, and will provide additional income streams in a sustainable way, giving access to affordable reliable and sustainable electricity for productive uses. This ensures an ongoing win-win collaboration, benefitting refugee and host livelihoods alike, as well as the environment, by reducing the need to cut trees for cooking fuel purposes.
